Serpentine Illumination
by esama
Summary: A prince spends two days in the presence of a snake and gives the snake more than he thinks. Atemu x Yami, AU, warning for creature!Yami and mpreg
1. I chapter

**Serpentine illumination**

**I chapter**

When Atemu was still a prince of Khemet, he was kidnapped. He never found out who was behind the kidnapping or what they had wanted to accomplish by taking him from his home. All he really knew was that he was fifteen when two men came to his bedroom at night, gagged him and tied him before carrying him away from the palace. One of the men was soldier who had been assigned as his bodyguard just week earlier.

He had been tied to the back of a camel's saddle and then his kidnappers had ridden out of his home town. He wasn't sure where they had been taking him; they hadn't been talking much while riding. They had been in quite the hurry to get out of the town, though, and that was no wonder. If the kidnappers had been caught with him, they would've been killed on sight.

Atemu didn't know how long they rode, only that it lasted days and that during the first to days the kidnappers hadn't even allowed their camels rest. Then the journey was cut by a sudden sandstorm. Atemu wasn't sure what happened during the storm. All he could remember was sand flying everywhere and the panicked sounds of his kidnappers. He had probably been knocked out in the midst of the chaos.

Later in life, he didn't look back to the kidnapping all that much. Later the fact that he had been kidnapped hadn't really meant as much as it should've. Because the two days following the sandstorm which ended the said kidnapping… they had been much more interesting and life changing.

-

As Atemu woke up, the first thing he noticed that he wasn't on camel's back anymore. He wasn't tied either, instead of being forced back and held by ropes, his hands were resting at his sides, free of any binds. He didn't have the gag anymore either. He would've assumed that the lack of binds meant that he was in some kind of holding cell if he hadn't felt the sunlight pouring over him or the tiniest desert breeze tugging on his bangs. It was cooler than in the day so it was probably evening. It smelled strange. Then he registered a sound. Dull sound of cutting and soft ripping as if someone was cutting through something wet and soft.

Trying to keep his face as calm and expressionless as possible, he went through the possibilities. Was he still in the hold of his kidnappers? Strange of them to free him of his bonds, but you never knew. Maybe he really was in some kind of cage… no, probably not. The shapes underneath the cloth he was lying on were clearly formed of sand. But that made little sense. Why would they free him of his binds without making sure he wouldn't be able to escape?

"I know you are awake," deep voice spoke, interrupting his confused thoughts. "There is no need to be afraid, I'm not going to hurt you. If I would want to, you would already be hurt."

The voice didn't belong to his kidnappers and it spoke the truth. If the one who had spoken had wanted to hurt him, they could've done it easily while he had been unconscious. And they certainly wouldn't have released him from his binds. So, little fearful and little confused, Atemu opened his eyes - and saw a sight he would never forget.

The strange smell came from a dead camel. A person was skinning the said camel and that was where the wet cutting noises came from. But what took most of Atemu's attention was the one who had spoken and who was skinning the camel. It was a rather pale man with spiky, partially black and partially golden hair. The man was dressed into simple black vest with some kind of belt tied around his hips with pouches and small satchels hanging from the belt... but where the man was supposed to have feet, he had something else.

"W-what are you?" Atemu stuttered out the first thing that came to his mind. He wasn't able to tear his eyes away from the snake like body, golden from the belly's side and ruby tinted black from the back and sides. It was coiled in lazy loops as the strange snake-man concentrated onto the job of skinning the dead animal.

"I'm just me," the creature simply said, glancing up with snakelike red eyes before looking down to the camel carcass again. "I don't know what my kind is called," he grabbed some of the camel's skin into his fist and held it tightly up while cutting it off the flesh with sharp slashes of his knife. "You have nothing to fear from me," the snake creature said with a tight smile. "I'm not dangerous to you."

"But you are dangerous," Atemu half asked, looking down to what he had been lying on. It was a sand brown cloak which he knew couldn't belong to either of his two kidnappers - both had worn black cloaks. Possibly the snake-man's cloak.

"Well, it's matter of perspective," the snake man answered. "I have never killed a human if that is what you're asking. And I'm not going to ever do so if I can avoid it," he sawed the piece of skin off and examined it. "This will make a good pouch," he murmured before staring to carefully cut the small pieces of meat off the inner side skin to make it as thin and clean as possible.

"Pouch?" Atemu asked confusedly

"For the meat," the creature answered. "I'm going to take as much as I can with me. I don't run into this much meat usually and I'm certainly not going to waste it," he examined the skin for a moment before spreading it to the sand. "For someone like me meat is not something easy to come by."

Atemu blinked before looking around with confusion. "Um… what happened to the two men who… um, were with me?"

"There were others with you? Well, I think they ran into quick sand while trying to find a shelter from the wind," the snake creature motioned at nearby dune. "That's where I found the camel you see. It had choked to death in the quick sand, only reason I found it was because one of its hooves stuck out. Took quite long to drag it out of it."

Turning to look at the camel, Atemu noticed that it was indeed a bit sandy. "How did you find me - and the camel - anyway?"

"I wasn't too far away when the storm struck. I was actually on my way home when I came about you," the snake creature snorted. "Lucky for me - and for you. You probably would've starved to death, left alone in the desert all tied up as you were. Why were you tied up anyway?"

"I, uh… they kidnapped me," Atemu shifted uncomfortably.

"I figured as much," the snake like creature murmured. "With those armbands and that collar you have to be someone wealthy and seeing as you were tied… Oh well. They're dead now and can't harm anyone."

Atemu nodded with agreement, rubbing his hand over his golden collar before looking at the creature curiously. "Do you have a name?" he then asked carefully. "I mean, you said that you didn't know what your kind was called, but you didn't say anything about your name…"

"It's Yami," the creature answered while staring to peel of the skin of the camel's legs. "And you are?" he glanced up briefly before turning his attention down again.

"Atemu," the young prince answered, pulling his legs against his chest as he watched the snake like man work. "Um… you wouldn't happen to know where we are, would you?"

"Not really. All I know is that there is a small human village there," Yami pointed at one direction. "And that the large river - Nile - is to that direction," he pointed at another direction. "At least I think so; I've never seen either in person, though."

"How do you know that they are there, then?" Atemu asked curiously.

"The man who raised me talked about them before he died," the snake creature shrugged his shoulders and threw away a slap of skin. Then he started to cut the pieces of meat off - there wasn't much of it in the camel, though. "He used to tell me stories of the Nile and the village. Grew up at the Nile banks and later moved to the village before becoming a hermit… or something like that."

"The man who raised you, he was a… human?"

"Yes," Yami answered. "He found me from the desert and took me in. Well, he found my egg, planned to make food out of it but I happened to hack before he could even try. Seeing that I resembled a human he decided to keep me and raise me."

"You… came from egg…?" Atemu asked confusedly.

"According to him. I still have the eggshells, though," the snake-like man shrugged. The knife hit a bone with a light scratching sound, and the man lifted his hand, examining the piece of meat he had just cut off the camel's leg. Looking satisfied, he placed it to the pouch-skin and continued working. "I guess that's how my kind are born, from eggs. Who knows."

"Hm…" Atemu shuddered a bit at the idea of being born from an egg. "That's… kind of strange," he muttered and coughed. His throat was pretty dry. "You wouldn't happen to have water?"

Yami glanced up before looking to his left. Then he threw something at the boy - water skin of one of the kidnappers. "It was tied to the camel's saddle," the snake-like man said. "Drink slowly, if you've been thirsty for too long you might end up vomiting it if you drink too much.

Atemu nodded and took a carefully measured sip of the water. After a pause he took another one, paused again and then took another one until his thirst was quenched. Then, as he put the stopper back into the water skin, he looked at the snake like creature. "So, um… what happens to me now?"

"I don't know," Yami didn't seem like he cared much. "I guess you can try and walk to the village or to the Nile, maybe someone will help you. I'm certainly not going to help you get to either place - people have the habit of trying to kill me when they see me so I generally avoid them."

"You didn't avoid me," Atemu noted out.

"Well, you're small and don't have any weapons, I don't think you could kill me even if you tried," the snake like man smirked at him, showing his sharp fangs. "And I have a feeling you're smarter than to try."

"Yeah, maybe," Atemu shuddered a bit at the sight of the man's teeth. "How long way is the village from here?"

"The old man said that it takes three days to walk there from the cave where we lived - where I now live alone," Yami shook his head while cutting off another piece of meat and dropping it to the skin. "But I can't know for sure. I've never been to the place."

Atemu frowned, glancing at the water skin. There was no way he could survive a tree day journey without food or water - and even if he could take the water skin with him, it wouldn't sustain him properly those three days. He would probably die before getting to the village. "You're sure that there is no habitats nearer than that?" he asked carefully. Starving to death in a desert wasn't the way he wanted to die.

"Human ones? No. My cave is close by, though," Yami glanced up. "You can come with me if you want. There's plenty of water there and sharing some of this meat with you won't be a problem for me."

"You'll… help me?" Atemu asked with surprise. "But you just said…"

"I said that I wasn't going to help you get to the village. I'm not going anywhere near the place," Yami frowned. "But I can help you. You've so far been only the second human who hasn't tried to kill me, and that's saying something," he dropped another piece of meat into the skin. "You'll have to wait until I'm ready with this, though."

"Yes, of course," Atemu nodded.

It took the snake creature some time, but eventually he had cu all the meat off the camel's skeleton. After putting the meat and the fat into the pouch, Yami tied it with a piece of yarn he had in one of the satchels tied to his hip. After that the meat pouch joined the others at the snake-man's hip.

With that done Yami looked at Atemu. "I guess we can get going now. Give me the cloak," he motioned the cloth Atemu had been laying on. Quickly Atemu did as asked, and Yami dressed into the slightly dirty, rather thick cloak. Then, with all the smoothness of a snake, the man slithered away from the camel's skeleton. "Now, come here," the man motioned. And stand on my back."

"What?" Atemu asked with surprise.

"Stand there," Yami motioned at the back of his snake like lower body from the spot where he would've had his calves had he had feet. "And take hold of my shoulders. I'm much faster than any human on foot. This way we'll get to my cave quicker."

"But… won't it hurt if I stand there?" Atemu asked worriedly. The snake like part of the man did look rather sturdy and strong, though, but still. You didn't just stand on people.

"I carried the old man in the same way when I was much younger. And trust me, you're much lighter than he was," Yami rolled his eyes. "Come on now, I want to get back to home and begin drying the meat before it'll start rotting."

"Okay… if you're sure," Atemu murmured. Taking support on the snake-man's shoulder, he carefully stepped to stand on the snake like back. It didn't give in at all underneath him - it was as hard as the ground if not harder, seeing that the sand was a bit soft.

"Hold on tight," Yami instructed before moving the rest of his body into lose coils. Then he shot into movement like arrow out of bow. Atemu had to wrap his arms around the man's shoulders to hold on. The spot where he stood stayed almost still and steady while the rest of the man's snake like body slithered behind in almost rapid fashion.

"Wow, you really are fast!" Atemu said with amazement. "Almost as fast as a camel!"

"And you're comparing me to my dinner. And I'm much faster than that if I want to be," Yami snorted amusedly before reaching his hands back and wrapping them around Atemu's waist. The boy couldn't help but blush as he was pressed against the snake-man's back, but soon he forgot all about it. Yami started to move even faster, moving up and down the dunes with ease. The young prince couldn't help but laugh at delight. Yami could easily outrun - outslither - any camel he had even seen, maybe even horses! And he was much more comfortable to ride on too.

It didn't take them even ten minutes before they came to more solid ground where patches of dried up grass grew along with few withered trees. Yami slowed down and slithered over the dried grass lazily before they came to a thin ravine almost hidden behind dried up bushes. The snake-man slithered into the ravine with ease, deep into it until they came across a mouth of a naturally formed cave.

"You live here?" Atemu asked curiously while the snake-man stopped to let him off his back.

"Yes, I grew up here. The old man lived here long before finding me and after he died I saw no reason to leave," Yami said before slithering into the cave. Frowning a bit at the dark cave, Atemu quickly followed. As they walked in, he started hearing the sounds of running water. Noticing his surprise, the snake-man smiled. "Underground river," he said.

"Oh," Atemu nodded in understanding. The man had said that there was plenty of water and no wonder if he really had underground river at his disposal.

Soon they came into a larger - equally dark - cave. Unsurely Atemu didn't dare to move a lot, but Yami slithered into the large cave confidently. Atemu heard few rasping sounds in the darkness before two stones hit aghast each other - flint stones. Few sparks flashed in the darkness before one of them caught something flammable. With a gentle blow, Yami nursed the spark into flame, easily spreading it until the cave started to light up.

Atemu blinked. The place wasn't as simple as he had thought. There were shelves carved into the wooden walls with pottery and other items stored into them. Punches of dried up plants hung from the ceiling along with some satchels and few ceramic-bottles and there were fabrics spreaded to the walls to percent the place from echoing. The underground river apparently ran right pass the place, there was large pool like body of water in the end of the cave. In the middle of the cave there was a hole in the stony floor which apparently served as fire pit. Blankets and furs were spreaded around it so that one could sit near the fire comfortably.

"It's… nice," Atemu murmured. He really hadn't expected the snake-mans home to be so full of human things. He had half expected it to be a hole and that's all.

"Most of these things belonged to the old man," Yami said, motioning at the pottery in the shelves. He had discarded his cloak again, leaving it near the doorway. "I don't even need half of this stuff, but it's not in the way so I haven't bothered throwing it away." He settled near the fire pit and threw some withered wood into it before untying the meat pouch from his hip.

"Hmm…" Atemu nodded thoughtfully. Something was missing from the place, though. There was no bed. "Where do you sleep?" he asked carefully.

"Anywhere I feel like," the man glanced up amusedly. "I'm half snake; I don't need a soft surface to sleep on."

"Oh… right," Atemu nodded before sitting down to the blankets. He watched the snake man for a while as Yami untied the pouch and begun to separate the fat from the meat. Then the man moved up to take piece of yarn, wooden plate and two sticks from the near by shelve. After that the man begun cutting the meat into thinned slices before making a small hole into them

"How old are you?" the young prince asked after the silence had stretched for a while. "I'm fifteen," he said just to make it fair. Then he stifled a grimace. He didn't even know if Yami could count at all - he probably couldn't, seeing that he had grown in a cave.

"How old I am?" Yami stopped his work for a moment, looking thoughtful. Atemu was just about to withdraw his question when the man shrugged and turned back to his work. "Hm… around twenty… I think. I haven't really paid much attention to the time - the old man did, according to him I was twelve around the time he died, but… since then I hadn't really paid any mind to it."

"You can count?" Atemu couldn't help but asking.

"Yes, count and read and even write," Yami snorted while easily slicing the meat. "The old man was pretty persistent about teaching me. I haven't really found any use for those particular skills, though."

"That man who raised you must've known a lot," Atemu mused thoughtfully. Ability read and write wasn't all that common despite his father's efforts to change that.

"He did, I guess," Yami murmured. He glanced up to Atemu. "You know, you should clean yourself up," he said rather bluntly. "You stink all the way here."

Atemu huffed a bit at the insult. He had tried not to think about it, but head been tied for god knows how long - he knew that he smelled. And so did his clothing. "I think I should wash my clothes too… You wouldn't happen to have clean clothing?" he asked hopefully.

"Yeah, there's some there which were left behind by the old man," Yami motioned at the shelves. "Help yourself."

With a bit of embarrassment but sudden and very strong need to get himself clean, Yami quickly studied the shelves before he found a robe similar to the white abaya he had on. Then, as apparently uncaring Yami continued to work with the meat, he walked to the pool. "Is it safe to dive into it or…?" Atemu asked carefully.

"Yeah, it's safe. The old man made the thing so that current would be rather slow. You probably won't even notice it," Yami nodded without looking up.

With a nod, Atemu turned back to the water. Then, with a self-conscious blush, he undressed his sandals before unwrapping the fabric belt. After quickly removing his golden collar and wristbands, he pulled his abaya off and slid into the water. Then he shuddered. The water, which reached him to his waist, was in no way warm. "I should've tried it before I jumped in," he muttered with his teeth clattering.

Yami chuckled at him but didn't look up from the meat. With huff Atemu turned his back to the man before starting to rub himself in hopes of getting the smell off him. "Do you have soap?" he then carefully asked.

"No. Just use the sand in the bottom. It works for me," Yami answered amusedly.

Atemu winced at the thought of using sand to get rid of the dirt. His skin would not like that, but… he really wanted to get clean. Steeling himself he kneeled on the water, shuddering as more of his skin was exposed to the chilly liquid. Then he reached for the bottom to grasp a handful of the sand. Then he begun the tedious and slightly bruising process of cleaning a layers dust and sweat off him.

By the time he was as clean as he could get without soap. Yami had finished what he had been doing. He had stuck the two sticks into holes of the floor near the fire and tied the yarn between them few times. The meat was now hanging from the yarns and drying in warmth of the fire.

Now that he had done what he had set out to do, Yami didn't seem to have anything better to do than watch Atemu, who had been just about to get up from the water. Underneath the snake-man's smothering gaze he couldn't help but hesitate. Yami tilted his head bit to the side at that. "Weren't you going to wash your clothing?" the man asked.

"I, uh… don't know how to do that," Atemu admitted. "It's the servants who usually do it."

"Servants, huh? You really are wealthy then," Yami murmured. "Just do the same thing you did to yourself. Rub the cloth with sand - but not too much or you'll break the fabric."

Atemu sighed and looked at his dirty white abaya mournfully. This really wasn't something prince was supposed to do - but it wasn't like he could ask Yami to do it, the man would probably laugh at him. With another sigh the young prince took the cloth, and begun cleaning it as well as he could. 'At least I'll know to appreciate my servants better once I get back home. If I get back home… no I will get back home. There is no question about it, I will."

"So… who are you?" Yami asked as he rinsed the sand from his abaya. "You have gold on you so you're rich kid of some kind, obviously…"

"I'm…" Atemu bit his lip. "I'm the prince of Khemet, first and only son of Pharaoh Akunumkanon…" He smiled bitterly, not even expecting the snake-man to believe him. After all, what would a prince be doing here?

"I see," Yami just said. "I guess they kidnapped you to get to your father, huh?"

Atemu blinked with surprise, before smiling bitterly. "Yeah, I guess so. I didn't really find out, they weren't all that keen on talking to me…" he rubbed his hand over his stomach, remembering the pain of being thrown to camels back like sack of grain. He frowned a little. "Father must be pretty worried by now…"

"I wouldn't know," Yami murmured rather uncaringly, turning his eyes to the fire before throwing a stick to be devoured by the flames.

Atemu glanced at the snake man. There was a closed up look in the man's snake like eyes and it looked like the man was very resolute in not looking at him. "You're lonely," the young prince suddenly realised. "Living in a place like this all by yourself, forced to avoid humans… I know I would be."

Yami frowned and didn't answer. Feeling a bit stupid for saying something like that, Atemu pulled the cloth from the water before trying to squeeze the water out of his hair. Then he got up from the water and dressed into the dark robe he had previously picked. "Is there a place I can hang this so it'll dry quicker?" He asked quietly while squeezing the water out of his white abaya.

"Yeah," Yami motioned at the roof of the cave.

Only then Atemu noticed that there were ropes hanging from there, probably for the purpose of drying clothing. There was no way he could reach them, though. "Um…" he glanced at the snake like man with a hesitating look. Yami glanced at him before sighing and slithering around the fire and towards him. The man took the wet cloth from his hands and easily stretched himself high enough to hang the thing on the ropes.

"Thank you," Atemu murmured. Just as Yami was about to return to his original spot, Atemu's stomach growled. Closing his hands around it embarrassedly, the young prince tried to grin. "I'm a bit hungry I guess."

"Hm… me too," Yami said without looking at him. "Sit down and I'll make some food for us."

As Atemu sat down near the fire, hoping that it would warm him after his cold bath and maybe even dry him, Yami picked up a very old and badly battered pot from the stone shelves along with a small satchel and a rope. Then, as amazed Atemu watched, Yami easily stood up higher and attached the rope to a nail in the roof just over the fire. He hooked the pot into the other end of the rope and once he let go of it, the pot hung just over the flames.

Yami worked rather quickly, taking some water from the pool and pouring it to the pot. Then, while waiting the water to begin boiling, he took the pieces of meat he had set aside along with some onions he had stored in a simple basket. "I don't have much," Yami murmured while taking his knife and beginning to chop the food apart. "But it'll have to do."

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Atemu murmured, looking at the onions curiously. For a moment he couldn't hep but remember something Mana had said back in the palace - something onions and priests. Yeah, the priests were forbidden from eating them because of their aphrodisiacal effect… The thought trailed away and Atemu couldn't help but blush a little.

Yami, thankfully, didn't seem to notice. As the water slowly begun to boil, the man threw the meat and the vegetables into the water before taking the satchel he had taken before. By the scent which floated from it when Yami opened it, it had some spices inside. The snake-man threw some of them into the pot as well before taking long wooden ladle and lazily stirring the rather crudely made food.

"Do you miss him?" Atemu asked after moment of silence. He blushed a bit when Yami threw him a dark look, but didn't back down. "The old man who raised you, do you miss him? How did he die anyway?"

"I did miss him," the snake man said, looking away. "But he died years ago, I got over it. And he died in his sleep. He was pretty old."

"Did he have a name?"

"Probably, but he was just the old man to me," Yami stirred the soup idly. "He didn't think names were all that important."

"He named you," Atemu pointed out while wondering how the man had ended up with a name like Yami. It was unlike any name he had heard before.

"No he didn't. Yami just is my name, it was always my name and I always knew it. He just called me the boy or the snake," the man snorted. "He never really used my name, but then again we were completely alone here so 'hey, you' was just as sufficient between us."

Atemu chuckled a bit at that, and the silence which followed was a bit more comfortable. Pulling his knees against his chest, the prince glanced around in the room. "What do you do here?" he asked. "I mean… searching for food can't take all your time, so what do you do to pass the time?"

"Pass the time? Never really thought of it that way," Yami said thoughtfully. "Much of my time goes to finding food - I guess eat a whole lot more than a human," he glanced at his snake like lower body. "And if I'm not searching food then I'm doing something else I need to do around here. Things always break and need to be fixed. Rest of the time I sleep.

"Sleep?" Atemu asked with surprise while looking at the man's lower body. It made sense that the man ate more than humans did, though. He was over ten times as tall - or long - as Atemu was and probably weighted twenty times more.

"Yes. I like sleeping," Yami shrugged. "If I didn't need to eat I'd probably just stay here and sleep all the time."

"How lazy of you."

The snake-man just snorted. They fell into silence once more and just waited for the food to be ready. Once it was, Yami fetched two bowls and handed one of them to Atemu along with rather roughly made spoons. Atemu tried the soup rather reluctantly and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually rather good. Apparently the snake-man's tastes didn't differ that much from human ones - but as he had been raised by a human that wasn't all that surprising.

Whilst Atemu only ate one bowl and was filled by that, Yami ate eight, emptying the entire pot with ease. While the young pharaoh wondered how many stomachs the man had - or just how long was the stomach if he only had one - Yami took the pot from the fire and washed it and the bowls in the pool of water. After setting them aside, he glanced at Atemu. "I'm going to go to sleep. You look like you should do the same."

Without even trying to stifle his yawn, Atemu nodded. While Yami slithered into the corner of the cave and coiled himself into roll, Atemu gathered one of the blankets around the fire into a pillow before taking other to use it as, well, blanket. While lying down he watched how Yami situated his upper body comfortably to the coils of his lower body. It looked actually kind of comfortable, the way the man used himself as his bed and pillow.

"Goodnight," Atemu muttered while closing his eyes. Yami just grunted in answer and soon Atemu fell asleep, listening to the soft crackling of the fire.

-

Yami opened his eyes slowly, staring at the cave's ceiling before slowly glancing towards his guest. It had been long since there had been someone else in his presence, and he had to admit that he wasn't sure what he thought of the situation. He couldn't relax with Atemu there but in the same time he felt a bit… better than he had in a while. Less… alone.

'Stop thinking like that,' he admonished himself while running his fingers through his messy two colour hair. 'Atemu won't be around for long. He'll probably leave already today…'

But still he couldn't help but glance towards the form sleeping by the fire pit. The cave was completely dark, but Yami had never had problems with the dark - he could see in the dark just as well as he could see in the light. The human was curled into a ball underneath a sand brown blanked, facing the long since died fire. For a moment the man felt slightly nostalgic, remembering another human who had once lived in this cave… but the old man had died years ago.

With annoyed sigh - the annoyance mostly directed at himself - Yami uncoiled himself and slithered closer to the fire pit. Throwing few sticks into it along with flakes and splinters which would caught fire easier, he then used the flint stones to bring some light. As the fire begun slowly spreading, he examined the meat slices. They weren't completely done yet, but it wouldn't take long now. While turning them around so that they would dry from that side as well, he glanced at the sleeping human.

"You're lonely," the boy had said. Lonely… yes, he was. To himself he could admit it, heck, he had admitted it long, long time ago just some weeks after the old man's death. Living alone like he did… it wasn't nice no matter how highly the old man had spoken about being a hermit. But… he didn't have much choice.

Coiling his himself and comfortably leaning onto the coils while staring at the fire, the man sighed. That was generally why he now knew that humans wanted to kill him on sight. He had once, long ago, tried to approach two humans who had for a reason or another wandered into the desert. They had drawn their swords as soon as they had seen him. For his thirteen-year-old mind that had been very effective lesson of the dangers of approaching humans.

In the end he wasn't sure why he had helped Atemu. He could've just taken the camel and left - as big as the animal was, he was stronger than humans, and he could've been able to carry it with ease. But instead he had stayed, even went as far as untie Atemu and allow the human rest on his favourite cloak.

'I wouldn't have been able to leave even if I tried,' he realised with amused snort. The old man had raised him to respect life - probably fearing that Yami would end up being the monster he looked like. It would've gone against everything the old man had taught him, to leave Atemu to die a slow death in the desert.

Shaking his head he glanced way from the fire. He was almost out of wood, he would need to go and gather some again… 'It really seems like all I really do in my life is gathering,' he mused to himself while taking his cloak and slithering towards the mouth of the cave. With a final glance to still sleeping Atemu, he left the cave, his scales softly brushing against the stony floor. Soon he was slithering out of the ravine without any hurry.

Gathering wood was pretty easy task for him. Once there had been a forest growing near by the ravine, but then the desert winds and blown it full of sand. The forest had eventually died leaving behind nothing but withered, dried up trees. Picking some sticks from the withered forest was no difficult task. After gathering enough wood - and getting a bruised cheek thanks to one of the branches whipping at him when he had failed break it properly - he headed back to the ravine.

Atemu had woken up while he had been gathering wood. The boy looked almost relieved when he saw Yami. "Good morning," the human greeted him with a smile.

"Hm," Yami just nodded before slithering to the spot where he kept his firewood. After placing the sticks he had gathered into one pile he slithered towards the fire pit to check on the meat. "If you're hungry, I can make you something to eat."

"Make me something to eat?" Atemu asked. "You won't eat?"

"No," Yami shook his head. "I'll take few more days before I'll eat again." He glanced at the confused human. "Remember, I'm not like you. I work differently from the inside I guess. I don't need to eat that often. As long as I eat plenty when I do."

"Oh… right," the boy nodded. "I guess I could eat something but I'm not all that hungry yet… hey, what happened to your cheek?" he suddenly asked, noticing the bruise forming on Yami's cheek. Standing up, Atemu walked around the fire pit to examine Yami's cheek. "What happened?"

"It's just a bruise, I'll be fine," the man murmured uncomfortably while coiling himself into more comfortable position and leaning his back against the coils. "I'll heal."

"It looks painful. It must hurt," Atemu kneeled beside him, still looking at his cheek worriedly. Then he had the gall to reach forward and try and touch the bruise as if to see if it was swelling. "Should you try and press a wet cloth again it, or…?"

"I'm fine," Yami rolled his eyes and looked at the human flatly, pushing his hand again. "Stop fussing for no reason."

"I'm not fussing for no reason, it looks really painful," Atemu frowned at him, leaning his hand over the scales just a bit under the belt. Then he reached for Yami's cheek with his hand. "It's kind of bluish… just what hit you?"

Yami glared at the human and was just about to tell him to move away when he felt the scales underneath Atemu's hand give into the pressure and spread just a bit. Two of Atemu's fingers accidentally slid between the scales and the man froze completely.

-

scene deleted due to rating, link to full version will be in my profile

-

"We… shouldn't have done that," Yami murmured while Atemu fell almost limply against his chest.

"I'm sorry," Atemu spoke from midst of his panting, pressing his eyes tightly shut to ward himself against the shame and guilt. "I'm… I'm sorry." It was all he could say.

The man was quiet for a moment before sighing. Then he slowly warped his arms around the naked prince. "We shouldn't have done that…" he repeated. "It felt good and in a way… I'm thankful, but…" he sighed again. "But you need to leave. You need to return to other humans."

Atemu stiffed, frowning. Then he released a heavy sigh. "I know," he murmured almost sadly and closed his eyes. There was no emotions between them, he didn't love Yami and he doubted that Yami loved him either, but he couldn't deny that a bond had just been formed between them - incredibly intimate one. Bond which he would soon sever, probably for forever. "At least I'll get to take a pretty memory with me, hm?" he tried to smile and failed.

Yami answered with tired chuckle, but it was completely mirthless one. Gently the snake-like man took the robe Atemu had discarded previously and gently spreaded it over the boy's bare form. "Rest now. Once you have regained your strength, I'll pack some food and water for you. Then you need to go."

"So soon?" Atemu whispered.

"If you stay any longer than that I'm not sure if I can let you go," Yami whispered, holding Atemu close. "So rest."

-

When Atemu had woken up, Yami had had a satchel of food and water skin ready for him along with a sandy travelling cloak. Slowly the boy had dressed to his now clean and dry abaya before pulling his golden wristbands and sandals on. The collar, however… that he had given to Yami, who immediately put it around his neck. The snake-like man had led him out of the cave and up to the plain where he had shown which direction to go. Atemu had promised never to tell anyone about Yami so that the snake-like man could continue living his life peacefully. Then prince had walked away.

Three days later he had came to the village. Trading his armbands he had gotten a camel and then ridden into larger town. There he had been found by some soldiers who had then taken him home. Atemu had been welcomed with teary hugs and prayers of gratitude. He never told anyone about the snake-like man he had met and left behind. Sometimes he did remember Yami and sometimes he dreamed of the man but he didn't go out looking for him. It was better for both of them to let what happened stay in the past.

Only years later he found what kind of importance the meeting truly had.

---

The uncut version of this story can be found on my yahoo group for those interested. you can get there by following the "homepage" link on my profile page.


	2. II chapter

**Serpentine illumination **

**II chapter **

Atemu sighed while pushing his bangs away from his face. Leaning back in his throne he couldn't help but think, not for the first time, how being a pharaoh really wasn't what it had seemed to be when his father had been the one. Pharaoh Akunumkanon had been… calm and casual about being pharaoh, powerful but at ease. Everything had seemed to come easy for his father, but for Atemu… everything seemed to be difficult and hard. Most of the time he felt like he had been both spreaded too thin and cramped too tight, like he was being crushed in a crack on the ground.

Were his ideas really so difficult for his people to accept? He only wanted for his people to have enough to eat, he wanted the children of his country to have a bit stronger base to push up from as they begun really living his life. Building wells, lowering taxes, teaching the peasants to read and write and maybe even count… was it really so wrong? No, that probably wasn't it. It was because he was wasting the taxes on that instead of building more temples and grand monuments of himself and his gods.

"I seriously doubt the gods want more statues about themselves," the Pharaoh muttered to himself, glancing up to the room. Just in this room there were more statues about their gods than he had fingers. The entire palace was filled with such statues and monuments and so was the "city" around the palace. Except it wasn't a city. It was just a cramped up town build to look high and mighty, the city itself was around the town, in the so called slums where the commoners lived.

"But people do," soft feminine voice spoke to his right. Looking up Atemu saw his only high priest, Isis, who was slowly walking towards him. "People like to be reminded of the fact that they are not alone and higher powers are watching over them."

"People should stop looking up and start looking down," Atemu grumbled. "Down to the gutter where most of humans live and need to make a living for themselves. Have you seen how the peasants live, how they are treated? My father put an end to slavery but still it seems like greater part of my people are nothing more than slaves…"

"I have seen, time and time again," the woman sighed, looking up to the statues of the gods. "You need to understand it from the view point of the nobles, my liege. They have never gone wanting of everything so to them divinity and what comes after their live is more important. They want the gods to be honoured because of that."

"They're just trying to cover up the fact that they have hearts much heavier than Ma'at's feather," Atemu snorted. "I know how important divinity is and how important it is to keep good relations to the gods - and how much it will matter once a person dies… but we are not dead yet. And we need to eat to live. Everyone needs to."

Isis sighed before smiling amusedly. "You truly are the most down-to-earth pharaoh of the history of this kingdom."

"I'm sorry for caring about my people," the pharaoh muttered almost sullenly.

"It is a good thing, my lord, a very good thing," the woman assured with a light chuckle. "But sometimes I fear… that you spend too much time looking down when occasionally you should look up as well. You have more duties than those to the people, my lord."

"I have you and the other priests to look up for me," Atemu smirked. "I trust you completely to tell me if it's starting to rain fire or if the sky is falling down."

Isis's eyebrow ticked. "I'm serious, pharaoh."

"Sorry," the king shrugged. "It's been a tough day, I'm trying to relax my mind after it."

"I see," the woman muttered and looked down to the hall. "I do apologise for possibly making your day worse, my lord, but lately I have seen some worrying dreams and visions…"

Atemu glanced up sharply. Whilst he usually made light of it due to having group of excellent high priests - who were really capable of worrying over the spiritual aspect of his kingdom - Isis's visions was something no one could make light of. Among all the priests, the woman was most connected to the future and could see things before they took place. If she was worried about something… it was enough to make others worry.

"What have you seen?" Atemu asked, now serious and sitting up straighter.

"I fear that adversary of Ma'at may be on the move," Isis said, looking at the statue of Ma'at and therefore missing his Atemu stiffened. "The Great Serpent of the Nile has not sent his demons upon us in a very long time - longer than either of us have lived - but priest Shimon still can probably remember the last time it happened…"

Atemu shifted uncomfortably, staring at the floor and not meeting either the eyes of her or his gods. Ma'at's adversary, the evil serpent god Apep… Though his priests held ceremonies very often to keep the evil god away, Atemu always tried his very best not to think about that one god. Apep and the mixed believes of snakes was also the main reason why he disliked the spiritual aspect of his life. Because too often snakes were considered evil and near demonic…

"Does your visions offer any answer as how to stop the serpent god before he makes his move?" Atemu asked almost reluctantly, still not looking up.

"They show me something which will help, but so far I cannot be sure what it is," Isis shook her head. "The visions are still rather light and faded so I do not think this danger will befall us immediately, it may not happen at all. I will try and See better if that is my pharaoh's wish."

"Do so," Atemu nodded and stood up. "Also, see to it that I will not be bothered today. If something comes up, let Seth handle it."

"My lord?" Isis asked worriedly.

"I need to think," Atemu just said and waked away, leaving the now slightly confused high priestess alone to the throne room. The pharaoh didn't worry about it; his priests should by now be adjusted to it. He had a habit of often seeking solitude and if they hadn't noticed it by now they didn't deserve their positions.

Quickly he made his way to his personal quarters where he locked the door before taking seat in a chair near the balcony of his room and trying to relax.

It had been years since, but the meeting with Yami still affected him. Heck, it had changed his views rather dramatically after he had returned to the home. Because of the danger he had been put in, his father had decided to begin his training in the use of the powers very rare could command - so that he would be able to defend himself should something like that happen again.

Akunadin and Shimon had been in charge of his training, Shimon mostly because he was better teacher than Akunadin could ever be. Shimon had been the one to teach him everything about gods and… about snakes. About Apep and his demons. Shimon had also been the one to give him a theory of who and what Yami really was, though the old priest hadn't known it himself.

Naga were the demon servants of Apep, creatures with human and snake-like features. Many, many years ago they had attacked Ra's people - humans - on god Apep's command. Of those Atemu knew, only Shimon was old enough to remember them but stories of the snake-demons still roamed in the land. Shimon had also sketched few of them for him. Some of them had snake-like head or upper body and some… some had snake-like lower body like Yami had.

"I don't know exactly what they were, but they called themselves Naga," Shimon had said. "At least some of them did, the ones who talked to us before their death. The others didn't talk at all, just hissed and snarled… I still can't help but wonder that there was some sort of conflict between them. Sometimes it seemed like they were more at odds with each other than with us - more than once I saw a Naga kill another."

That was one of the things which made Atemu turn his eyes more and more away from the gods. Even though their meeting was brief and Yami had been anything but kind or loving, he still didn't want to consider the snake-like man as a demon. Yami, though not kind, hadn't been evil either. Just withdrawn. It made him hope that there had been something in the war Shimon hadn't known - that Yami's people… hadn't been demons at all. Sadly, his own mind didn't believe his heart's wishes.

Other was how his people and how his priests viewed snakes. On one hand they were viewed as evil and dangerous, which was both rooted to Apep and to the fact that some of them were poisonous. But on the other hand there still was a belief out there about snakes being the "protectors of the King"… it made really made no sense.

The pharaoh sighed, pushing his heavy crown from his head and running his fingers through his hair. Mostly he avoided thinking about the whole thing about Yami, snakes, demons and most of all Apep. He had enough troubles with his kingdom and people to wonder about a creature he had once met. Like he had thought then, he still - even more so than before - knew that it was better for both him and Yami to just leave what happened behind himself and never think about it.

And even so… he still could remember the first time he had realised that he just might've made love to a demon. Back then it had scared and horrified him, but it was years since then. Now the thought brought a small smile to his lips - perhaps a little rebellious one. Then it made him sigh. "My heart is definitely heavier than Ma'at's feather," he muttered to himself.

-

Mahado looked up from the papyrus Seth had been showing him as he heard the doors to the main library open and close with a bang. " Isis?" he asked with slight amusement, seeing the ticked off expression on the woman's face. Very few things could bring that expression to the woman's features and it was always a delight to see. "Is something wrong?"

She threw him a glare before visibly calming herself down. She walked to their table and sat down with slightest huff. "The pharaoh," she sighed. "These days he's so bipolar that he's giving me a headache."

"He walked out on you, didn't he?" Seth asked just with slight amused smile while leaning back in his chair. "He has the tendency of doing that when the subject of conversation doesn't interest him or bothers him. What were you talking about his to make him run?"

"He didn't run… he walked away as gracefully as one can while being as stiff as a board," Isis muttered. "And I came to him to talk about some dreams I had. I'm honestly worried about them and at first he was listening to me too, but the moment I mention Apep he just…"

"Ahh," Seth nodded knowingly. "You're still fairly new in the ranks of his majesty's court so I guess you wouldn't know about it. The pharaoh doesn't like to talk about snakes."

"Huh?" Isis asked confusedly. "He doesn't like snakes?"

"No, he adores the little monsters. One of the reasons for his little escapades is to go and watch the peasant snake charmers," Seth chuckled, shaking his head while Mahado turned back to the papyrus. "He just doesn't like talking about them. Doesn't like the opinions people have of snakes."

Atemu's 'escapades' as Seth put it were well known about the pharaoh's court. Once in a while Atemu would dress up as a peasant and slip out of the palace. No one knew how he managed to get pass his own guards or the priests and usually they found the pharaoh only after Atemu had decided to return to the palace. At first, back when the pharaoh had still been a prince, the priests had been horrified about the young pharaoh's actions - scared that he would get himself killed during these foolish adventures… but Atemu always returned unscathed.

Because the escapades that, Atemu knew more about the peasants than anyone of the priests and nobles. Because of that he was rightfully the most down-to-earth pharaoh in the history. He didn't believe the nobles and land owners when they tried to assure him that the peasants had all they needed and wanted nothing more because he knew better. Atemu was known for never accepting second hand information - making him believe you when you had no proof was a very difficult thing to do. Isis, because of her gifts, was actually the only person Atemu believed without needing proof.

"Hmm… I never would've guessed," the high priestess said.

"Well, he doesn't exactly make noise about it," Seth snorted. "Mostly because of what people think of snakes, because of Apep. Because of the demon war which took place over seventy if not eighty years ago. And trust me when I say this, the pharaoh really doesn't like Apep."

"Hmm… I can see now why I made him uncomfortable," Isis murmured with a frown.

"What kind of visions have you been having?" Mahado glanced up. "If they include Apep then they must be rather serious."

"I don't know yet, but there is time and I intend to find out. I'll tell you when I know better," she promised before looking down to the papyrus the two men had been studying. "What is that?" he asked curiously.

"We've been trying to come up with a way to placate the argument between the pharaoh, the nobles and the other priests," Mahado said. "Some way to use the taxes to give the peasants a bit more than they usually get whilst still satisfying the needs of the nobles. The first thing pharaoh is intending to do now is digging wells in the villages and smaller towns where people don't have enough fresh water… so we've tried to make we wells a bit more, hm… spiritual."

"If we make the wells look like small temples…" Seth shrugged. "Then people will be reminded of their gods even as they fetch water. I'm not sure if the pharaoh will agree to this, but it should satisfy the nobles - even please them if we present it the right way."

"That's very smart of you," Isis congratulated. "Very good way of solving this dilemma, but… what is that?" she motioned a sketch at the corner of the papyrus.

"Thought of how to solve another of pharaoh's current headaches," Seth shrugged. "Peasants don't get to eat much and grain is too expensive for them because most of the crop is lost even around the river. There just isn't enough water. Also it takes very long to carry water to the furthest fields - and even if we could get all the peasants carry the water it still wouldn't be enough. So, we've been thinking about a way to get the water to the fields easier."

"Canals," Mahado explained. "If we can get the water from the Nile to flow around the fields the problem would be easily solved. The thing is, building this will take more of the taxes and again, getting the nobles to agree will be difficult."

Isis chuckled. "Your pharaoh is the most realistic one we've had in ages and you two match him perfectly."

"We just want him to stop whining about it, that's all," Seth muttered, but there was a slightest hint of embarrassment on his face.

"Right…" she murmured with a knowing smile. Then she frowned a little. "What do Shimon and Akunadin think of these plans? I don't think I have heard their opinions yet…"

Mahado and Seth frowned, glancing at each other. "Well… Shimon agrees with pharaoh's opinion, but that's no wonder. The pharaoh learned at Shimon's feet about everything and anything, so they probably have pretty much the same way of thinking. Akunadin on the other hand…" Seth grimaced.

"He sides with the nobles. Wants Atemu to build more temples instead of bothering with the peasants," Mahado sighed. "He is very old fashioned."

"Sadly for him, our pharaoh is unlikely to change his mind about this," Seth mused with a mirthless smile. "There probably has never been a man as head strong as him, he will get his wish one way or another. He always wins."

Isis chuckled, before standing up again. "Well, I wish you good luck with the wells and canals. Now, would you happen to know where Shimon might be? Is he at the palace or in his temple?"

"We just saw him so he should still be at the palace. You should try the cartouche chamber, he likes spending time there," Mahado said.

With a nod Isis thanked the two high priests before heading out of the library, thinking about the cartouche chamber. It had a different name - something along the lines Chamber of Eternal Knowledge - but in the palace it was referred more casually. It was a large room filled with walls which were covered in cartouches. Some of them held names of the past kings, priests, nobles, the gods… but what would draw Shimon Muran there?

Soon she came into the grand chamber lit with numerous torches and castor-oil lamps. The smell of the castor oil was rather heavy in the chamber where there were no windows, Nut in the palace Isis had gotten used to it a while ago. "High Priest Shimon?" she called, her voice echoing in the chamber. "Priest Shimon, are you here?"

"Is that you, Isis?" the old man's voice echoed back to her. "I'm at the end of the chamber."

Quickly Isis made her way, glancing left and right in the enormous chamber. She rarely spent time here, but every time she did she felt shivers. Thousands of years of history were contained in these enormous slate covered walls, not just names but histories of those names as well. The roots of the Great House of Pharaohs, the history of upper and lower Khemet…

Then she saw the short old priest who had been in-service of Atemu's father when Akunadin had just taken the throne all those years ago. "Did you want to talk to me, my dear?" Shimon asked from behind the cloth covering most of his face.

"Yes. Pardon my intrusion upon your private time," Isis apologised. Shimon's age and knowledge always demanded respect; there was no one in the palace - other than the pharaoh - who did not look up to the old man. "I have been having some worrying dreams and I was hoping if you could help me."

"I don't know what my kind of old man can do to help you, but I'm willing to try." Even though Isis couldn't see it, the old man's eyes held warmth which told her he was smiling. "So ask away."

Isis blinked. "How do you know I want to ask something?" she asked curiously. It had happened before. Shimon had uncanny ability of knowing what people wanted from him, but she didn't know how he did it. He didn't have any precognitive abilities as far as she knew.

"Everyone is always asking me things," the old man chuckled and leaned in with amused glint in his eyes. "I think they think I know more than they do just because I'm old. That age makes you somehow wiser. It doesn't it just gives you the most annoying problems. Like this latest one with my joints…" he raised his hand and pressed his wrinkled fingers into fist slowly, difficulty. "I don't think I'll be winning any arm wrestling matches anymore…" he muttered almost mournfully.

The young high priestess couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Well, I do want to ask you something," she admitted. "You see, the dreams I've been having, I keep seeing creatures which I think are Naga… but I'm not sure. I was hoping you could perhaps describe them to me, as you were alive when the last attach happened."

"Hoo…" Shimon turned now slightly more serious eyes at her. "Naga, you say? Hm… that is very curious. See this," he motioned at the wall which was full of tight writing, "is the memorial of that war between the people of Ra and servants of Apep. Here are craved all the names of the people who died in that war, from nobles to soldiers and priests to peasants. Over ten thousand names…"

"So many?" Isis asked with horror.

"It could've been worse," Shimon said seriously. "But thankfully their attack somehow dissolved. To this day I still don't know why the war ended or who actually won it… but that's not important. You wanted me to describe the Naga you? You are in luck," he walked along the wall to the end of it and motioned up. Isis' eyes widened at sight of large relief. Two snake-like human creatures were carved into the wall, one had a snake's head and other's feet were replaced by snake's body.

"Pharaoh Atemu had these made," Shimon stroked his hand over the wall. "It was actually one of the first things he ordered to be made after he became pharaoh… he had a curiosity towards the Naga at that time…"

Isis stared up to the two strange creatures in morbid fascination. They did resemble greatly the creatures in his dreams. There was a difference though. In the relief the two creatures were against two human soldiers. In her dreams it was a bit different.

"Where do you think the Naga came from?" she asked carefully.

"Part of them came from Northeast as far as I know - I was pretty young, just an apprentice in the court, at the time so I don't remember much about it," the old priest took a deep breath. "I don't know where the other part came from. Some said that they came from underground, from the Underworld, but I don't really know about that."

"They came from two different places?" Isis asked with narrowed eyes. "Two different groups?"

"Yes," Shimon nodded, motioning at the two creatures. "Who knows why. Maybe the other half of their army had been doing something in the lands to the Northeast from here…" he shrugged. "Neither of the two armies went that way when the war ended, though. One day they just… vanished one by one. Before last of them vanished, how ever, they were fighting more amongst themselves than against us. I think something happened in their midst which turned them against each other, but we can't know what…"

Isis frowned. "In my dreams they're fighting against each other too," she said, looking at the two creatures with a frown. "The ones with heads of snakes are charging at the snake bodied ones. And we're left between them. And if we can't stop it, our towns will burn and our people will die…"

Shimon looked at her worryingly. "Have you told the pharaoh about this?" he asked.

"I have, but he wouldn't listen to all I had to say," Isis sifted uncomfortably. "All I managed to say to him was that I believed Apep to be on the move. He told me to try and see if my visions can provide a way to stop it from happening, then he sought solitude."

"Ah, that's no wonder. He dislikes talking about anything that has something to do with Apep," Shimon nodded. "Is there something else you saw? Maybe I can deliver the message to our pharaoh for you - I should at least be able to make him listen."

Isis frowned and shook her head. "No. All I have seen so far is fighting between the Naga. I do sometimes hear a child's cry over the fighting but that's all. The dreams are still hazy and I think we still have months if not years time until they come into reality."

"A child's cry? Hmm…" Shimon frowned. "It's usually the smallest things which are the most significant when it comes to visions like these. Try and concentrate onto the cry next time."

Isis nodded. "I shall try. Thank you for your guidance."

"You're very welcome. Now, would you happen to know where I might find that strong headed pharaoh of ours?" the old man asked.

"He said that he shouldn't be disturbed," Isis said. "I assumed that he would head to his person all quarters. I'm not sure if he would look upon you kindly should you disturb him now…"

"Ah, I've never let his moods frighten me before and I'm certainly not going to let them start now," Shimon said cheerfully. "No matter how much of a pharaoh Atemu is, he's still the same little snot nosed brat I taught back when he was prince."

The old man laughed at Isis's horrified expression. "Never mind, my dear, never mind," he said and began to walk away. "Do tell me if you get more precise dreams later, would you?"

"Of course," Isis nodded and was soon left alone in the cartouche chamber. She looked up to the creatures with a sigh before frowning. "Childs cry over a battlefield," she murmured before raising her hands into the position which always helped her to find her way into the state where she was likely to receive images from the futures. "I want to see the child who cries… and know why the child cries…"

-

"Here I thought I ordered Isis to make sure I wouldn't be bothered," Atemu muttered mournfully while letting amused Shimon into his quarters. "Don't be so smug, old man. I'm letting you in only because you might drop dead any moment and I'd rather not have dead bodies in my corridors."

"So you'd have one on your living room instead?" Shimon asked amusedly, not a least bit insulted. "You are still such a brat, young man."

"And you have no respect for your king," Atemu rolled his eyes, stifling a smirk as he walked back to his chair. "This place has gone to the dogs, seriously… Now, what do you have to bother me with on this fine well ruined day in which have already been bothered as many times as it's humanly possible to bother someone?"

"Don't try to be a smart-ass, Atemu, it doesn't suit you," Shimon chuckled while taking a seat as well. "You are far too kind and gentle to pull it off properly. Seth on the other hand, now there's a smart-ass."

"Don't let Seth hear you say that, old man, he'll throw a snappy comeback at your face," the pharaoh chuckled before regarding the veiled old man with serious look. "What do you want? Usually even you honour my wishes when I want to be alone, so it must be pretty serious."

"You didn't listen to what Isis had to say," Shimon turned serious as well. "She is a jewel among the priests because of her gifts, even you know that. When she has a warning to deliver, you don't just ignore it. I know that you dislike thinks that have anything to do with Apep, but --"

"I asked her to find a way to prevent it, what more could I do?" Atemu interrupted, looking away with uncomfortable look about his face. "Her visions don't always come true and you know it. It could be just ghost of what could happen but never will. Why should I get excited over something that might never even happen --?"

"Because the chances of it happening are just as big," Shimon snapped back, his eyes narrowed. "This isn't like you, Atemu. I don't know what happened during those days of your kidnapping to make you this way, but --"

"Why do you think it has anything to do with the kidnap --?"

"Because you changed during it," the old priest frowned. "Now, I don't know what happened, but I don't much care either. You are not only adult, Atemu, you are the pharaoh of this country. If there is something, anything, that might threaten it, is your duty to make sure that we are prepared for it. Not mine, not Isis's, not any priest's. It's your duty. It's what you were born to do. Don't let what ever personal opinions or grudges you have to get in the way of that."

Atemu shifted uncomfortably before taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly. "You're right. I know you are, but… I'm sorry, it's just a bit difficult," he ran his hand through his hair. "Please, tell me about Isis's vision."

The old man looked slightly satisfied as he nodded. "Remember how I told you about there being two groups among the Naga? About the ones with snake heads and others with snake bodies and how they usually kept distance to each other? Isis says that the two will fight against each other and our people will be left in between."

"Collateral damage, huh?" Atemu murmured.

"It may be that they will come from the Underworld to fight on earth," Shimon nodded. " Isis said that the snake headed ones will charge at the snake bodied ones, so perhaps the latter group will do something to offend the former group."

The pharaoh frowned. Then his forehead smoothed again. "What do you suggest we do?"

" Isis will be trying to find if there's more to the vision," Shimon said. "Let's give her a day… and then talk about it between the High Priests. Together we might come up with a right way to deal with this threat…" the glanced up to the pharaoh curiously. "I've been wondering. Why don't you want to talk about snakes with anyone? You were very interested when I was still teaching you but after that…"

Atemu looked at him blankly for a moment before smiling and looking a way. "A snake helped me," he answered. "I don't want to talk about his kind if it means listening to other people's negative opinions."

"Not everyone hate snakes, Atemu," the old priest said though with a little bit of a frown.

"Most do," Atemu answered simply. "It's enough to make me vary."

-

That night Isis dreamed. She dreamed of slithering bodies and fangs, snarls and hisses and how sword and spear tangled between snake-like creatures. She dreamed of her hometown which was in flames, of people who were running away, of people who were dying. She dreamed of screaming and crying, death and destruction. She dreamed of things which could come to pass.

In the dream she heard crying. Quiet sobs of a small child echoed over the sounds of metal meeting metal, sounds of hate and despair, over everything that was destroying what she knew. She concentrated onto the quiet crying. She wanted to know who was crying. She wanted to know why the child was crying. She wanted to know the significance of those sobs in midst of this madness.

"…uld ha…ed th…" she heard the child sob and concentrated onto the sound "…ould have…pped thi…" the voice got a bit clearer and he vision shifted. "I could have stopped this," the child then sobbed with clearer voice, repeating the words over and over. "I could have stopped this… I could have stopped this… I could have stopped this…"

It was a very young boy, probably no older than eight or seven. Isis only saw part of him, but what she saw indicated that he was dressed into peasant's simple clothing - possibly peasant himself. He was holding an item close to his chest, rocking gently back and forth as if to comfort himself. The item was golden and stained by blood. It took Isis a moment realise that it was a crown - her pharaoh's crown. "… I could have stopped this…" the boy said again, bowing his head and letting his tears fall to the bloodied eye-insignia of the crown. "I wasn't here in time to stop it… Father, I'm sorry…."

Isis woke up with a gasp.

-

Everyone could see how nervous Isis looked the next day when Pharaoh, five high priests and one high priestess gathered into the council chambers where they usually met with serious matters - and where Atemu often met with the nobles and landowners. The lone woman in their group was wringing her hands just slightly, which was completely unlike her. Usually she was very calm and collected when it came to meetings like this - did her everything to not only to stand equal among the men but also push away any notions of being "emotional woman".

" Isis?" Atemu asked softly, a bit worriedly. She had been calmer yesterday when she had initially brought the word of her vision to him, but now she was a nervous wreck. Whatever she had seen must've shocked her greatly. "Are you alright?"

"Yes… ah, yes," the woman nodded, forcing her hands to relax and lowering them to the table, leaning onto her elbows just slightly. "Yes, I'm alright."

"Good," Atemu said and glanced over his high priests. Shimon sat to his right - the exact same spot he had sat in when Akunumkanon had been the pharaoh. At Atemu's left sat Akunadin, the younger brother of Akunumkanon. Seth sat at Akunadin's left while Mahado sat at Shimon's right. Isis sat next to Seth and Shada sat between Isis and Mahado. Together the six were the most powerful people of his kingdom - right after Atemu himself.

"Now, Shimon and I called this meeting because Isis has seen a vision which, we believe, to be very important," the pharaoh spoke, making everyone sit a bit straighter. Atemu smiled a little at the action before looking up to the woman. "Please. Tell us what you have seen."

"Yes, of course," Isis nodded, still looking a bit nervous. "First I saw battles raging in many of our towns and how the tows people killed between the two forced who were fighting. I soon saw that there were no humans fighting in these battles, only creatures I know from historical texts and high priest Shimon's stories," she motioned at the old man respectively. "I later talked with him and confirmed them to be Naga."

"The Naga?" Akunadin asked sharply. "Those snake demons of Apep? Those things haven't been seen in a lifetime!"

Shimon cleared his throat with slightest frown while the pharaoh shifted in his seat. Akunadin turned his eyes to the eldest high priest and quickly quieted down with apologetic look. Atemu glanced at the conservative priest before looking at the high priestess. "Please continue, Isis."

"As far as I can tell, there are two distinctive groups in the Naga," the woman continued, clasping her hands. "One group have snake-like heads. Other have snake-like lower bodies… these two groups will be fighting in our cities; the snake headed ones attacking the snake bodied ones. And we, the humans, will be left in between them."

There was a short silence. "Could this really happen?" Shada asked worriedly, and was answered by the expressions of those around the table. No one ever could tell about Isis's visions - they were very strong and needed to be taken seriously, but they were still just possibilities of things which could happen.

"When will this happen?" Seth asked.

"The visions are still a bit hazy, it can be anything from months to year," Isis shook her head. "But probably no further than that, as I cannot see that far ahead."

"Have you seen anything that might help us prevent this?" Atemu asked, leaning his chin to the back of his palm.

"Well…" She looked uncomfortable. "I-I'm not sure. In the dreams I heard a child cry over the battle field. On Shimon's advice I concentrate onto the crying until I saw the child… but…"

"But what?" Atemu glanced up sharply. She had actually stuttered and was unwilling to say it? It must've been really bad. "You can tell us, Isis. This group has seen, experienced and heard of many strange things, I'm sure we can handle what ever worries about you in this child."

She hesitated and then stared down to the table's surface. "It was a boy, maybe seven years old, possibly much younger. He was crying, whilst holding a bloodied item against his chest. 'I could have stopped this' he said over and over," she swallowed, not looking up. "The item he held was your crown, my lord… and just before I woke up, he said 'I wasn't here in time to stop it… Father, I'm sorry….'," She trailed away.

The silence in the chamber was almost deafening. Atemu sat near rigid as people turned to look at him with wide eyes. "My crown…" the pharaoh said slowly. "And he said 'father'?"

"That is what I saw," Isis spoke softly.

"And you think this boy was my son?" Atemu raised a single eyebrow at that. "My son could stop this terrible future from becoming a reality? I'm starting to think this is a divine attempt to make me marry," he muttered. The fact that he hadn't selected himself a wife was constant source of worry among the priests and nobles - he was reminded of it every now and then. Shimon and Akunadin had annoying habit of trying to find perfect wife for him - perfect being someone with child bearing hips and chest made for breast feeding. Atemu usually skipped such wife-candidate meetings.

"No, sir," Isis cringed. "The child was already old enough to walk, talk and understand and I cannot see further than two years into the future…"

The silence was even louder this time. Atemu frowned at the high priestess. It was easy to see that she was neither joking nor saying it lightly - she knew complete meaning of what she was saying as well as the possible ramifications. "You are saying that I already have a son," Atemu murmured, tasting the words in his mouth and finding them slightly bitter. "A bastard child…"

Now the priests were all staring at him - aside from Isis who didn't dare to look up. Atemu's frown darkened and he looked back at them. "It's impossible," he said. The last time he had bed a woman had been back when he had been under fifteen - and then he had made sure that the girls he had been with had taken herbs to prevent them from getting pregnant. Since then he hadn't been with anyone, as his youthful lust had been sated…

"It's not possible," he repeated with calmer voice and with more certainty in his words.

"It could be an adopted child?" Mahado suggested. "Someone who will perceive you as his father, my pharaoh."

"I don't think so," Isis said and cringed as the attention shifted back to her. She swallowed nervously. "These visions of mine are not actual future scenes but messages with symbols. The crown in the vision as well as the blood staining it... they both hold a significance - marking him as the full blooded heir of the throne."

" Isis, it's not possible," Atemu said sternly. "I would know if I had impregnated a --" he stopped as if his words had been cut by a knife. As everyone in the table turned look at him, they saw how he slowly but steadily turned completely pale with realisation.

He was sure he hadn't impregnated a woman but… he still wasn't sure if Yami was completely a male. And if Yami wasn't and his lust would've had that repercussion, then… then the child would be about six years old now, depending on how long Yami's kind carried. And he would've sired an heir to the throne almost accidentally. Heir who most likely wasn't even a human.

"If…" he spoke slowly, calmly. He had a feeling like he was sitting in the calm centre of a raging storm and everything was just about to blow into bits. "If it was possible… what would I need to do?"

"Bring the child here," Isis's answer was immediate. "His presence here will prevent the future I saw."

Bring the child, his bastard Naga-heir, to his city? Atemu was quiet for a while, feeling the stares of his high priests on him. Then he slowly stood up. "This meeting is adjourned," he said as calmly as he could before walking away and leaving his court stare after him worth confusion and shock.


	3. III chapter

**Serpentine illumination**

**III chapter**

With a troubled expression, Atemu stared up to a wall where a map of his kingdom had been hung. He could point Yami's cave's location on the map very easily, but everything else going through his head wasn't as easy.

It wasn't easy to stand the looks his court were now giving him as they believed he had conceived a bastard with some random peasant woman. Akunadin especially was giving him hard time because of it, as the man was firm believer in marriage. Getting back their respect after this would be difficult, but that was only minor problem.

It wasn't easy to accept that he might've gotten Yami pregnant. The Naga had seemed so very… manly to him that the thought had never crossed his mind. You usually couldn't conceive a child with male, but… on other hand, Yami wasn't human. The rules which applied to humans probably didn't apply to him.

'I have a son… who grew up in a cave,' Atemu thought to himself without knowing what he felt about it. A child with royal blood in his veins grew up in the very same cave he had been conceived in… heck, Yami probably gave birth in that same cave. 'Oh, gods, Yami must hate me,' the pharaoh frowned brushing his hand over his eyes. Two days, one stupid act, and he had perhaps ruined the man's life…

And his court wanted him to bring that child here. Child which probably was just as much Naga as Yami. Bringing the boy here wouldn't be good at all, no matter what Isis's visions said. The boy was a Naga and… people had certain way of reacting when they even thought of Naga. Though most of his people had learned about the creatures only by hearing about them from their parents and grandparents, the hate towards the snake demons was deeply rooted in his kingdom. If he would bring his Naga son here… people would hate the boy and probably try kill him. And what could a dead Naga child do to prevent the future Isis had seen?

Wrapping his arms around himself, the pharaoh sighed heavily. "Yami…" he murmured, bowing his head. The Naga probably wouldn't even let him take the boy. He had a feeling that Yami would not be all that sympathetic towards him if he would just ride to the man's cave and tell him that he needed to take their son because of a vision his high priestess had had.

"My lord…" voice interrupted his thoughts. Looking up the pharaoh saw one of his priests walking towards him - Seth. "Are you going to do as Isis asks?"

"It's not that easy, Seth," Atemu answered with a sigh. His court through that the 'mother' of his child was just some random peasant down in the city, one he could just order to give the child to him, but… In reality, Yami was quite far away - it took ten days to ride to the cave and another ten to ride back. And Yami… wasn't someone he could just order. Yami wasn't just another subject. Yami wasn't one of Ra's people - or one of Atemu's subjects.

"How difficult can it be?" the high priest asked with small amount of annoyance in his voice. "It's either you bring the child here or our kingdom will crumble between two armies straight from the Underworld. Now, I don't know what led into the birth of this boy or who his mother is, and I don't really care - none of us do. The mother could be a whore and it still doesn't matter. What matters is that the child needs to be here."

Atemu smirked mirthlessly at the taller man's words. It would've been much, much easier if it had been a prostitute.

"The people don't need to know that he's your son," Seth pressed on. "We can just say that he will be apprentice of the court. Or perhaps your personal page --"

Atemu laughed at that. "Oh, that wouldn't work out at all," he muttered, glancing at the taller man. "You all have some strange notion that I would just pick a random peasant to bed and that's it. That the 'mother' would be just another woman among thousands… but it really isn't as simple as that. I can't bring the child here just for his sake."

"Is the mother foreigner?" Seth asked with surprise.

Atemu snorted. "Far more foreign than you think," he muttered. "No matter what you think, I don't just pick people to bed randomly, Seth. I don't sleep around. That time was actually the last time I bed anyone… and that time was spurred on by my own stupidity and should've never happened in the first place."

The tall man looked hesitating before frowning. "Nonetheless, the child must come here or we will die between two armies. When you have that in one scale and the boy's heritage in other, which is heavier?"

Atemu frowned at him before looking at the map again. Then he sighed. "I know," he said, smiling mirthlessly. "I guess it's a time I go and see the family I never knew I had," he muttered, before glancing at the high priest. "And just for making me do this, you'll be in charge when I'm gone."

"Huh?" Seth asked with surprise. "When you're gone? But I thought…"

"It'll take ten days to just get there," Atemu shrugged turning to walk away. "Did you really think that I could have a son in this town without noticing it?"

-

Getting away the palace undetected is a bit more difficult when someone knows you're leaving, Atemu mused to himself while ignoring most of what Mahado was telling him. They were currently at the royal stables where he had been fitting a very simple saddle on his fastest horse. "No," he just said and tied the saddlebag, where he had all his food and water, into the saddle.

"But my lord! You can't leave the palace without being properly guarded!" the high priest quickly argued. "What if something happens, what if you're attacked by thieves, what if --?"

"Nothing will happen, Mahado, now shut up," Atemu sighed, patting his steed's neck fondly before starting to lead it from the stables. The pharaoh was dressed into simple peasant's clothing and sand brown travelling cloak instead of wearing rich linen, cape, jewellery or even his crown. "Besides, travelling around with guards will draw attention and I rather travel as undetected as I can this once."

"But --!"

"Oh, peak down, Mahado. He won't listen," Seth muttered while staring down at Atemu with his hands folded. "Though it would ease our minds if you would take at least one of us priests with you."

"No. There are some things I need to do alone, and this is one of them," Atemu said sternly. "If even one of you follows me, sends people after me or anything of that sort, you can all find yourselves new jobs. I hate nothing as much as too sneaky priests."

"Too sneaky?" Shimon asked amusedly. "Too?"

"Priest who isn't sneaky isn't a priest at all, but you need to keep it reasonably low lever," the pharaoh glared at him before easily mounting his horse. "While I'm gone, Seth will be in charge. You can bother him with the things you usually bother me with - though please, don't let me return to a kingdom you have managed ruin or I'll have you all beheaded. And don't give into the nobles, I want that argument nice and unsettled when I get back so that I can continue quarrelling."

Shimon laughed at that, though the other priest looked at grumpy Seth with surprise. "Why Seth? Why not someone more… experienced?" Akunadin asked.

"Like you, Akunadin?" Atemu asked with single eyebrow raised. His uncle huffed at his tone of voice but was wise enough to keep silent. Uncaring, he shook his head and looked at the other priests. "You all play nice when I'm gone, alright? I should be back within a three weeks."

"Three weeks?!" they cried in unison except for Seth who had known it before.

Atemu merely shrugged. They were the ones who had been insisting that he would go and get his son; they would have to accept that there were some consequences to such wishes. Not that he was all that sure if he would be able to bring his son here in the first place - he had a feeling Yami wouldn't be too easy person to charm to his side. 'Maybe I should get a snake charmer to come with me,' he thought mirthlessly.

"My lord," Isis spoke for the first time. "I think you should take a dray instead of single." As everyone turned to look at the high priest, she looked towards the yard with her hands raised up in a way she always held them when she was trying to get a clearer vision. "I can see you returning with one…"

"Dray?" Atemu blinked before realising. "Of course," he muttered and glanced at his favourite steed. "I guess I'll be taking with me some other time, then…" he glanced at the servants tending to the stables. He ordered them to prepare the simplest and most peasant-like dray of the stables for him whilst the priests looked at him strangely. He also ordered them to prepare enough water and hay for the horses so that they could survive the trip through the desert.

"Will he return safe and sound, Isis?" Mahado asked worriedly while Atemu took of the saddlebags and let the servants take his horse back to its stall.

"As far as I can see he will return without any harm done to him," the priestess nodded before frowning. "I don't see the child, though…"

Atemu grimaced but said nothing while he waited the servants to prepare the dray. There was really nothing he wanted to say at this point, because anything he would've said had a possibility of being slightly incriminating. He had already informed Seth about everything he could and anything he couldn't do and if the tall priest wouldn't be able to do as asked then so could none other priest. There was a reason why he had picked Seth, other than the fact that the man had made him make his mind.

"I'll try and come back as quick as I can," Atemu said when his dray was finally led outside. He glanced at Seth. "Take good care of my kingdom while I'm gone."

"Of course," Seth frowned slightly as if slightly insulted by the idea that he would even doubt it.

Atemu smiled at him knowingly while taking the reigns of the dray and throwing the saddlebags to the wooden seat in the front. Nothing else really needed to be said. While he took seat in the dray, his priests and priestess wished him luck and prayed for safe return. He merely smiled at them before heading out and towards the nowhere where Yami's cave was.

-

Yami kept his eyes closed, trying very hard to stop his mouth from twitching as he felt another gentle poke against his cheek. The weight on his side shifted before he felt another poke, this one longer. Still feigning sleep, the man kept his eyes closed though it was harder to keep from smiling as he heard exasperated sigh and felt another poke. Finally breaking into slight smile, he was rewarded with huff.

"You were faking," child's voice muttered with a pout in the tone. Opening one eye, the man peered down to the pouting boy. The child had his arms folded and was very pointedly not looking at him. "Mean Yami."

"You're the one who was poking me, little one. How am I the mean one?" Yami chuckled before throwing his arm around the small form. "Good morning, little one," he muttered, pressing a kiss to the boy's temple which chipped half of the pout away. "Are you hungry?"

"No, I'm bored," the boy muttered, still not looking at him and trying very hard to try and look angry. It wasn't working very well.

"Well, I have a good way of solving that," Yami grinned, slithering his hand to the boy's side and starting to tickle the child through the linen shirt. Try as he might, the boy couldn't hold back the giggle and the squirm, soon breaking out to shrieks of laughter.

Chuckling at how the boy tried to escape his hold, the man tightened his hold and leaned back against the coils of his lower body before looking at the boy contently. "My little miracle," he murmured fondly, reaching out to brush the boy's now slightly messy bangs from the small face. "You're my little light, aren't you Yugi?"

The boy giggled in answer before pressing his hands against Yami's stomach and propping himself up. "What will we do today? Can we go out? To the dead forest? Can we, can we?"

The man chuckled again. "I thought we were going to practice writing today."

"But that's boring!" Yugi pouted again. "I want to do something fun! Can we at least go outside today? It's boring being in the cave all the time… I know, we could water the garden today! I could help!"

"Hmm… not a bad idea, actually. The garden needs watering," Yami admitted. "But first you have to get off me, little one. I don't think I'm going anywhere as long as you lying on top of me. I swear you're getting a bit bigger each day. Soon you'll be as big as I am, and I can't call you little one anymore."

"Hah, I'll grow so big that I'll be longer than Yami! And stronger!" Yugi cheered but quickly slithered away, his amethyst tinted body easily sliding over Yami's red tinted scales. While the boy weight to get the simple buckets excitedly, the man stretched his arms with a wide yawn.

With a chuckle Yami then uncoiled himself and went to help the boy with the buckets. Yugi was only strong enough to hold the smallest one when it was full and couldn't even properly lift the heavier ones even when they were empty. "I think you have a bit more growing up to do before you'll be anywhere near my strength, little one," the man said amusedly while lining the containers near the pool of water and starting to fill them.

"How much more?" Yugi asked while bending to fill his little pail. "Will I be as strong as you tomorrow?"

"No, I think it will take much longer than that," Yami chuckled, dipping one of the buckets into the pool before pouring the water into another bucket. "We'll see about it in about ten years."

Yugi frowned a little while struggling to pull the little container from the water. For his little arms it was quite the task. "Isn't that a really long time?" he asked while placing the bucket down with a huff.

"Very long," the man chuckled. "You're only six now, you haven't even lived that long."

"How long have you lived Yami?"

"Much longer," Yami smiled. Once the buckets were filled - all eight of them plus Yugi's little one - he took a long staff he had gotten from the dead forest and hung the buckets from it, four at either end. Then he hoisted the staff along with the buckets to his shoulder while Yugi struggled to hold up his little pail. "Shall we go then? Will you lead the way, little one?"

"Yes!" Yugi said excitedly and quickly slithered around the fire pit and towards the doorway. Yami followed him and soon they were making their way out of the cave and into the ravine before heading up. Once they were out in the sunlight, Yugi headed towards the small vegetable garden not too far away.

While approaching the patch of green in otherwise dried up plain Yami looked back to the reason why he had set up the garden. It was because of Yugi in the end. Once the boy had entered his life, everything had changed. For one, he hadn't been able to take long food gathering trips anymore. And for two, even if he had been he wouldn't have been able to keep the boy and himself properly fed. So, instead he had looked back to what the old man had taught him and he had made the garden. He still needed to hunt for meat, but now they had enough vegetables to go manage even without meat - which had pretty much been the way of things lately.

"Remember to be careful when you pour," Yami said to the boy who looked like he was itching to water the vegetables. "Try not to waste the water. The ground is very thirsty and if you don't pour correctly, the vegetables won't get enough water."

"Yes Yami," Yugi answered and rushed to find the one plant which would get the water he had carried. With a chuckle, Yami lowered the buckets he had carried to the ground before taking one of them and begun pitching water on the vegetable rows. Soon after pouring is water carefully over one nearly dried onion, Yugi dashed back to fill his little bucked from one of the bigger pails, trying to be sneaky about it. Yami pretended to not notice as he continued to water the vegetables.

"Yami, something has been eating these!" Yugi soon called out from the corner of the field he had been examining. Frowning, the man left the bucket behind and slithered towards the spot. Bending down to see what Yugi was pointing at, he saw the slightly ripped lettuce.

"The jackals again," Yami murmured, examining the plant. If it had been birds, he was sure he would've found signs of it everywhere in the garden. "I guess they hadn't had any better luck finding meat than I have. Hmm… maybe I should build a fence around the garden so that they can't get to the vegetables…"

"Fence?" Yugi asked confusedly. "Like a… a wall?"

"Yes, something like that," Yami ruffled the boy's hair fondly. "But for now let's just water the vegetables."

By the time they - or more accurately, Yami - finished, the sun had climbed high up to the sky and sunlight was pouring over them. While he piled the now empty buckets, Yami wasn't too surprised to soon find Yugi literally lying around whilst soaking in the sunlight. It was always like that, Yugi was full of energy when he woke up, but it soon ran out and by the time of noon the boy would be napping.

"My lazy little one," Yami murmured, stretching himself to the ground beside the content child. He smiled fondly to the boy, who was lying on his stomach with his head pillowed by his hands. Leaning his head to his palm, the man looked down to the dozing child. He didn't really mind it though, Yugi's naps and occasional bouts of laziness. He liked to sleep just as much as the boy did.

Laying his head down to his arm, Yami reached his hand out to stroke the boy's spiky hair. Yugi released a content hiss, his lower body curling up a bit before he relaxed and drifted into sleep. "Sweet dreams, my little light," Yami murmured, before allowing the warmth of the sun to lull him into dreamful haze.

It didn't last for long. With a snap he turned completely alert as he felt something from the ground. Pressing his hands against the dirt, Yami was still for a moment. The ground was vibrating slightly… something was coming and by the feel of it, it was coming to his direction.

"Yugi, little one," Yami reached for the boy quickly. "Wake up for a moment. We need to go to the cave."

"Mm… 'm comfortabl 'ere…" Yugi murmured drowsily.

"I know, my light, but we need to go inside," Yami gently scooped the boy to his arms. Yugi's lower body immediately wrapped itself around his waist as the boy buried his face to the man's neck. Yami smiled fleetingly before quickly heading towards the ravine. He glanced at the vegetable ground with a frown, but slid inside the ravine nonetheless. If it was humans, the vegetable patch would give him away - if that, then the buckets would… but he didn't know if he had time to gather the pails and it was impossible to hide the vegetable garden.

"Okay, little one, you can go back to sleep here," Yami said once they were at the cave while gently letting the boy down. Yawning, Yugi curled up, hugging his coils while soon drifting off to sleep again. The man spared the child a fond smile before slithering out of the cave and to the ravine.

"Please, don't be humans," he murmured while resting his palms against the walls of the ravine, concentrating onto the vibrations of the ground. Humans never came here since there really was nothing here, but it was a fear of his. What if they would come? What if they would see him… what if they would see Yugi? The boy had become the centre of his world and Yami feared nothing more than that something bad would happen to his little light. He steeled himself as the thunderous sensation turned clearer. Whatever it would be, it would have to get through him to get to Yugi.

Then the feeling stopped, too near the ravine for Yami's comfort. Hiding in the shadows of the cave's mouth, he waited anxiously. His forked tongue darted out in action he usually avoided, mostly because the old man had told him that it was unbecoming. Now he couldn't stop himself from nervously licking the air in hopes of catching a scent. The scent he caught, however… it froze him. It was familiar. Too familiar.

"It can't be," he murmured, leaning forward. He heard something. Rasp of sand between stone and something that moved. Step of human feet's. And voice.

"Yami?" the voice, familiar and foreign in the same time, asked. It echoed in the ravine along with the sounds of careful steps. "Yami, are you here?"

Yami hesitated. The scent was so familiar that it nearly hurt. It was the smell he still could sense in Yugi even years after it had faded from his cave. The sound was familiar also, but it was also different. Sign that the seven years had effect on the human as well. The human had been still a boy back then… but why would he return now, as a man?

"Atemu…?" Yami spoke, leaning to the wall of the cave just before Atemu came close enough to see him. "Why have you returned here?" the snake-like man smiled a bitter sweet smile. 'To fill my nights with foolish dreams and days with strange fears… and grant me another miracle?' "I thought you were supposed to leave me to my peace."

"I'm… sorry," Atemu answered, stilling in the ravine as if feeling Yami's reluctance of making eye contact. "I promised to leave you behind - I promised that to you and my self. I'm truly sorry, but I… had to come. To learn the truth."

"The truth of what?" Yami frowned with sight confusion.

The human hesitated. "I came here to find out if you carried my child."

Yami stiffened slightly, fisting his hand against the wall. Shiver of worry and agitation travelled through his body, causing his coils rasp against the ground. Then he slithered to the edge of the cave's mouth. The man who stood in the ravine was no longer the boy whom Yami had saved from the desert. Just with a single look Yami could tell how much that boy had matured and grown. Atemu still wasn't as tall as the old man had been, but there was strength in him, strength and experience he had lacked previously. It was strange, though. Last time Atemu had carried the signs of nobility. This time he was dressed in simple clothing with no jewellery.

"How do you know?" Yami asked quietly.

Atemu snapped his eyes up from Yami's neck, which still bore the golden collar the man had given to him as a boy. "Can I come in?" he asked instead of answering.

"Tell me first."

Atemu frowned slightly, before raising his chin as if steeling himself. "I'm the pharaoh now. My father died three years ago and I took the throne after his demise," the human's voice had gained an edge it hadn't before had. "In my royal court there are five high priests and one high priestess. The high priestess, Isis, is also a seer. She saw a vision in which my son took part in."

"But the thing is… it impossible that I could have a son. Not unless you carried me one," Atemu's voice softened a bit. "So please answer me, Yami… did we create a life together?"

Yami looked at the human blankly for a moment before looking away. He didn't look at it in the same life Atemu seemed to look at it. Son wasn't part of Yami's vocabulary and Yugi had and never probably would call him father. And 'together'… there was no 'together' in the way Yugi had came to be. Yugi was Yami's miracle which Atemu had, unwittingly or otherwise, granted. 'Together'… was too painful to be added to that sentence. Especially after 'alone' had been present for so long.

"Come," Yami simply said, turning around, knowing that Atemu deserved to see the gift he had given.

-

Atemu followed after the Naga. Yami was acting strangely, though it wasn't like he knew enough to know for sure. It had been seven years since their last meeting and even the Atemu hadn't been around enough to be able to claim that he knew the Naga. But even so, Yami was stiff and strangely quiet, almost subdued. The Naga Atemu had left behind had possessed a warrior like strength of mind… this one seemed different.

Then they came to a cave dimly lit by cooling embers. Even though the light was scarce, Atemu's eyes were immediately drawn to the gleam of purple he saw in the other side of the fire pit. As Yami quickly coaxed a real fire into the pit, Atemu saw him clearer. An amethyst Naga child lay on the floor, coiled tightly, hugging his tail and peacefully slumbering. He shifted a bit as the fire started to light the place up but didn't wake up.

"His name is Yugi," Yami spoke, circling around the fire, picking up a blanked at he did, and gently spreading it over the child's human-like back . With tenderness that surprised Atemu, Yami stroked his hand though the child's mostly dark hair. "My little light." He then looked up with sharp eyes. "What do you want with him?"

Atemu was speechless. Both because of the question and because of how Yami acted. The Naga clearly loved the child. It wasn't something Atemu had expected… he hadn't thought that Yami's kind were capable of love. Yami had seemed so cold when he had met him, but… he clearly wasn't anymore. And Atemu wasn't sure how it changed things.

There was no way Yami would just allow him take the child now. The look in the Naga's eyes told him that Yami would fight him to death if necessary over their son. Remembering how lonely Yami had seemed when he had met him all those years ago - the empty look in the Naga's eyes back then… comparing that to this, Atemu wasn't sure if he even wanted to try to take the child. Not when he knew what it would probably do to the Naga.

With a heavy sigh he sat to the blankets near the fire pit. "I don't know," he muttered. There was so much stake here… he didn't like making choices like this. Looking up carefully, he watched how Yami protectively hovered about their son. "Would you tell me about him?" he asked carefully, wondering how much parenthood had changed the cool Naga. "And how… you had him?"

Yami regarded him with a suspicious look before slithering away from the child and closer to him so that they wouldn't need to speak over the fire pit. He coiled beside Atemu, leaning back against his tail. "Everything was fine in the first weeks after you left," Yami spoke almost reluctantly but with some kind of determination. "Then I started to feel something. For the longest time I thought I was sick somehow," he paused, wrapping his arms around his stomach. "And then I started to swell and I still didn't know what was going on. I was hungry all the time…"

"Six months after you came and left, I was… huge," the Naga snorted. "At odd times I thought I was about to split open… and then I thought I was really going to. It took the entire night Yugi's egg out of me and… it wasn't pleasant experience, I was in pain for days afterwards."

'His kind carries six months then…' Atemu regarded the Naga with worried look as Yami rubbed his palm over the dark fabric of his vest with a slightest frown. He didn't sound bitter though. It actually sounded like a fond memory to him.

"I didn't know what to do with is egg at first. I was rather panicked by the mere thought that I had carried one inside me," the Naga shook his head amusedly. "But then I realised that it needed warmth to hatch - my egg had nearly hatched on its own just staying out in the desert so… During days I took it out to the sunlight and during nights I kept it near the fire. Three months later, Yugi hatched." He chuckled. "Of course, I didn't know his name was Yugi until much later. Before he learned to talk and could tell me his name, I just called him little one…"

"Huh?" Atemu blinked with surprise. "You didn't name him?"

"Of course not," Yami looked confused. "It's his name, why would I know it?"

"But… a child can't name itself; parents are the ones who gave the name. For example my name was given to me by my father," the pharaoh explained.

"Hmm… you humans are strange sort. I knew my name before I knew how to talk and Yugi knew his," Yami shook his head.

Atemu frowned a bit at that but then shook his head. 'Must be a Naga trait…' he mused before looking at Yami again. "What is he like?"

"He loves to play but tires quickly," Yami smiled fondly. "Energetic until noon, then sleeps to early evening, energetic to the midnight and then sleeps to morning. I slept lot too when I was in his age. I'm not jealous of him, that's for sure. I still remember it, constant skin shedding."

"Skin… shedding?" Atemu asked worriedly.

"We are snake-like. We shed out skins like snakes. I do it every other month," Yami muttered. "Yugi does it every other week because he's still growing up - did it almost once per week when he was still just a baby."

"Um… You… shed your skins?" Atemu asked again.

Yami glanced at him before snorting with amusement. "Not the entire thing. Just a layer, very thin layer," he assured with a shrug. "Nothing dangerous but terribly annoying. And exhausting." The Naga shook his head and was quiet for a moment. Then he looked at him seriously. "What do want of Yugi, Atemu? You said that your priestess had had a vision…"

Atemu swallowed. "Her ability to see the future at times is incorrect and at times it's frighteningly exact. That's why she is in my court - gift like that cannot be overlooked…" he shook. "When she sees a vision, no matter what kind of it is… I need to take it seriously. Even if I don't want to…"

Yami frowned at him. "Answer the question, Atemu. What do you want of Yugi?"

The pharaoh avoided looking at him. "The vision she saw was a war which would trample over my kingdom and burn my cities… and kill my people," he said with slightly tight voice. "War between two kinds of creatures I know humans cannot hope to fight fairly…"

"Answer the question," Yami groused through clenched teeth.

"This war will destroy everything I cherish and hold dear, unless…" Atemu took a deep breath, "unless I bring my son to my home, to the capital city."

Immediately Yami sprung up, coiling tightly and facing him with a grimace. Atemu winced as the Naga looked at him with steady, alert eyes like snake about to attack. "You will take Yugi only over my dead body, Atemu!" the snake-like man hissed angrily

Atemu stayed still and didn't even turn his face to look the Naga - he had seen enough snake charmers to know that sudden movements around angry snake weren't good idea. Instead he just smiled sadly, turning his eyes to Yugi. "I kind of figured that out already," he murmured before glancing at elder Naga carefully. "I won't even try, Yami. I'm not enough fool to think I could compete against your physical strength and win."

"What makes you think my strength is only physical?" Yami jeered at him. "You only spend two days in my presence, don't try to even pretend that you know me. You know nothing about me and you know even less about Yugi." He moved sharply, raising his head a bit higher. "Any method of fighting you will choose, I will be perfectly capable of fighting back. I assure, the old man taught me more than reading and writing."

'I could challenge you to a race. I doubt he taught you horseback riding,' Atemu mused. 'Then again… you're probably faster than any horse…' He sighed. "I won't fight you Yami, not in any form or fashion. Nor will I try to take Yugi from you against your will. Even if you weren't able to stop me, I wouldn't be able to do it because I know it's wrong."

Yami hissed at him, but seemed to relax just a little. "I think you should go," the Naga spat.

"I know, you have every right to throw me out, but… please listen to me first," Atemu pleaded. "I think I know something you would want to know."

"And what would that be?" Yami asked, cocking his head almost mockingly to the side as if confident that there would be nothing Atemu knew that would interest him.

"I know what you are. At least I know something about your heritage," the pharaoh said, knowing that this was his lone advantage over Yami - and perhaps the only way he could sway the Naga to his side. "The records of history contained in my royal palace speak of your people. The Naga --"

The word had enormous impact on Yami and Atemu stopped speaking when a shudder ran through snake-like mans form. The Naga withdrew to himself more, tightening the coils of his body. It wasn't to attack, though. It seemed like he was instinctively trying to defend himself. Yami looked at Yugi with a confused, hesitating expression. He looked almost fearful.

Carefully, Atemu continued to speak. "The Naga attacked my people over seventy years ago. They followed the command of demon god Apep, the great serpent of the Nile, and waged a war against humans. Very few still remember those days, but my eldest priest was there when it happened, he still remembers some," the pharaoh put some more strength into his words as Yami seemed to withdraw more. "He described the Naga to me. They were all like humans with snake-like qualities. Some had snake like head… and others had snake like lower bodies. Like you… like Yugi."

"You're saying that… I'm a… Naga?" Yami murmured with strange tone of voice. "Follower of this demon… god… me and Yugi both."

"I don't think you are, not you and not Yugi," Atemu assured. "You were raised by a human and you raised Yugi. As far as I know, you don't worship the gods."

"We don't," Yami agreed. "If there's a whole race of people like us, why are we here? Why haven't I heard of any of them - why didn't the old man know?"

"It was long a since the Naga were seen in these lands. They left as they came, nearly without a trace. People believed that they escaped to the Underworld where Apep resides," Atemu shrugged. "I don't know how it's possible for you to be here in the first place. Maybe one of your kind bore an egg which was lost in the desert, maybe one Naga was left behind and you're their descendant… who knows."

"So, I've been in an egg for some forty, fifty years?" Yami asked with a sneer. "Unlikely. It took Yugi only three months to hatch."

"Well, I don't know how you ended up here," Atemu sighed, running his hand through his hair and grimacing at the grimy feel of it. Ten days without change to clean up had definitely left its mark on him. "There's something else I need to tell you."

Yami glanced at him unsurely as if not certain if he wanted to hear. Atemu spoke regardless. "The creatures who will begin their war in my kingdom… they are Naga. The ones like you will be attacked by the ones that have snake like heads. We don't know why, all we know that it will happen and only Yugi's presence in my home city might stop it."

Yami hissed violently. Before he could say anything, the boy they had been discussing about made a noise. Atemu watched with certain fascination how all sings of anger faded form Yami's face. The Naga quickly uncoiled himself and slithered to their son. "Shh, little one," the man bowed near the boy, running his hand over Yugi's small back. "No need to wake up, just go back to sleep…"

As the pharaoh watched the elder Naga very effectively sooth their child back to sleep, he couldn't help but feel a bang of some sort of bitterness. Yami didn't want Yugi to see him - wanted to keep the boy oblivious of his presence - and perhaps his entire existence as well. 'I wonder, has he told Yugi how the boy came to be? Does Yugi know anything about me?' Atemu found himself questioning, before he steeled himself. It didn't matter. Yugi hadn't been intended, he was an accident. What it mattered if the boy knew him or not?

With a soft mumble and sigh the boy slipped back to sleep. Yami glared at him over the boy's form before quickly slithering away. "Outside," the Naga snarled and obediently Atemu stood up and followed. He had a feeling that he had only one chance at trying to convince Yami and perhaps change his mind. It was strange though. He wasn't sure if he wanted the boy to come his city in the first place. To him letting things remain as they had seemed like the best thing for all three of them.

"No matter what vision this priestess of yours has seen, I will not allow you to take him, Atemu," Yami hissed at him as they made their way out of the ravine. "You already know that, and trying to persuade me won't help you. Yugi will remain with me."

"Yes, I know," Atemu sighed. "But I hope you understand that in that decision, you decide for me as well. I will die along with my people, Yami. I will do everything I can to keep my people safe and I know already that it will be the death of me. I and no doubt most of my people…"

He wasn't trying to make the Naga feel guilty - Yami probably wasn't even capable of that feeling. It was the simple truth. If the Naga would come and begin to fight, he would do everything to save his people. He would try to get them to safety and then he would try to fight the threat to keep them away from his people. His priests would no doubt stand by his side as he did so, and… no doubt, they all would die.

"We would've lost the war had it continued," Shimon had told him once. "It took ten of our soldiers just to kill one Naga. They were stronger than we are, their magic was strange and quicker than ours… we would've lost and there was nothing we could've done to stop it… That makes one really wonder why they left before the war came to an end."

The pharaoh smiled sadly before covering is eyes with his hand once they came out to the sunlight. He glanced to his left to see that the dray and the tired horses were where he had left them - tied to a near by rock. Then he looked to his right where he saw something green. "Something grows here?" he asked with surprise. Before he had been in too much of a hurry to stop and look around and hadn't noticed the green.

"With Yugi here, I can't go out looking for food like I used to. So I grow it instead," Yami shrugged, folding his hands as the last of his body slithered out of the ravine. "It's safer than leaving him here when I'm looking or taking him with me."

"I see… I guess you carry water from the cave," Atemu mused while looking at the pails piled near the small vegetable ground

"Yeah, Yugi loves helping out with the watering - not that he actually helps much," Yami mused with a fond smile. Then he sighed. "I'm sorry," he then said. "About your people and… mine apparently. But I still can't let you take Yugi. As long as I'm alive, I will stay by him and I will protect him. Your people or the Naga do not matter to me. Only Yugi does."

'To think he has such strong loyalty for our son. Yami must really love that boy, I guess,' Atemu mused glancing at the Naga. "I know," he then said. "You wouldn't need to leave him - he wouldn't need to leave you. You could both come with me."

Yami blinked sharply before slowly turning to face him. "What?" he asked slowly.

"You could both come," Atemu shrugged. "Yugi's presence will ensure the safety of my kingdom, your presence will ensure Yugi's safety. You would probably learn lot about your kind as well. And once the danger is over you can return here if you want to…"

"I can't say that the chance of learning about my kind doesn't interest me. But… to leave here… to… go to human settlement…" Yami looked torn. "I don't… I don't think I want to put Yugi - or myself - into that kind of danger. The humans will try to kill us no doubt."

"They won't," Atemu said with stern voice. "They are my subjects, I am their pharaoh. My word to them is the law and they cannot go against the law. Not unless they want to get executed," he met Yami's hesitating eyes with serious look. "Yugi is my flesh and blood and you bore him. As long as it's within my power, I will do everything to keep you two safe."

"And still you want to take us from here, where we are safe," Yami muttered with slight frown.

"… true. As the pharaoh it is my duty to ensure the safety of my people and Yugi's presence will do that," Atemu sighed. Juggling the duties between his family and his kingdom would probably give him a headache soon. "Also… Yugi is the prince of Khemet. In a way it's also his duty."

"Yugi has no duties to humans!" Yami snarled at him.

"No. But a prince does. Whether you like it or not, Yugi is my flesh and blood, the heir to my throne --"

"Then get yourself a woman and have another child!"

"It wouldn't matter," Atemu said calmly. "Yugi would still be the first born. The blood in his veins - and the magic I no doubt passed onto him - makes him the heir. Only way he can escape it is by dying before me. Not that I think he will."

Yami snarled violently at him but didn't say anything. Atemu sighed heavily and folded his hands. "Yami, just… think about it reasonably. I know you fear and maybe even hate us humans and you probably have the every right to, but… do we all still deserve to die. Do I deserve to die?" He waited for a moment but Yami's only answer was to turn his back on him. "I'll give you one day to think," Atemu spoke softly. "If your answer is still the same then… I promise you will never see me again."

With that said he turned and walked to the dray to prepare for the worst wait of his life. Behind him Yami jerked violently and glared after him before turning and vanishing into the ravine.


	4. IV chapter

**Serpentine illumination**

**IV chapter**

Curling himself around his light, Yami was dimly aware that he was, in a way, looking for comfort from Yugi's sleeping form. As he leaned is head down to the crook of his arm, he ran his hand over Yugi's spiky hair and sighed. The boy usually had a soothing effect on him - even if he tried he usually couldn't stay angry around Yugi no matter for what reason… but now he was pretty sure that even the boy's presence couldn't calm his mind.

Trying to think of it calmly, he went through the conversation with Atemu in his head. The human, formerly a prince and now a pharaoh, had returned to his cave because of a vision his priestess had had. About a war and about how Yugi would prevent it. As he tried to push back the fear and anger he felt about Atemu's wish to take Yugi away, he couldn't help but wonder why. Why was Yugi's presence so important, why would Yugi stop the war which would or would not take place?

It made no sense and somewhere in the back of his mind dark voice whispered that Atemu only wanted to take them away to do something horrible to them - to rip Yugi away from him. But no, he knew that wasn't the case. Atemu's words had sounded honest enough and the emotion in the man's eyes had been real. The pharaoh truly believed that the war could happen and only Yugi's presence would prevent it.

"How could my little one stop a war?" Yami whispered, examining Yugi's face with confused eyes. "My sweet innocent light who doesn't even let ME hurt a bug…" He smiled a little at the memory of time when the vegetables had had bugs. Yugi had bursted to tears when Yami had said that they needed to be killed. In the end the man had had to take the bugs away instead.

Yami had never seen a war, but the old man had told him about them. Dangerous things where people killed each other over who knows what reasons - politics, borders, beliefs… How could an innocent, gentle and most of all fragile creature like Yugi do anything to stop something like that?

Then he remembered something. "Great power can reside in small things, boy. Remember that," the old man had told him long ago, while explaining flint stones to him. He hadn't understood how you could make fire with pair of stones. Maybe… maybe this was something like this. Small spark could ignite the wood and make fire, maybe Yugi was like a spark.

But what did it matter? Laying his arm over Yugi's back, Yami frowned a little. No matter how and why Yugi could stop the war, there was no way he would allow Atemu take him…

Atemu. Yami shivered a little, shifting closer to Yugi. The thought of the boy - no, man - confused him. He remember how back when Atemu had visited his life all those years ago, it had felt like breath of wind. His life had been so still and bleak for so long, ever since the old man had died everything had seemed somehow same. Especially after he had realised that staying at the cave was safest for him… and then, after so many years of still ness, Atemu had came and brought something new with him.

It had been so weird. Even after the boy had left, Yami had been thinking about him so very often. He didn't have all that many subjects to occupy his mind with; Atemu had been as good as any. After week he had already missed Atemu a little, wishing that the boy would return and break the monotony again. Month later Yami had been overcame by… urges. The old man had taught him that spilling seed by his own hand was waste and that was what he had believed, but… With memory of Atemu in his mind, he had spilled. Over and over. And he had enjoyed it. He had no other experience than Atemu and what they had done that one foolish moment, so it made sense that it would be all he could think about…

During that time he had also been sick. Mornings his stomach had been turning and twisting inside him and evenings Atemu had filled his mind. For a moment he had thought that the sickness he felt during mornings was because of the evenings and what he did, so he stopped. But the sickness remained. And when he had begun to swell, he had thought that he was dying. He had thought that spilling seed was that horrible thing the old man had been talking about, sin, and that sin was swelling inside him and would kill him.

How foolish it seemed like now. It hadn't been sin, it had been miracle. Miracle by the name of Yugi.

When the pain of lying the egg had finally healed, Yami had been between excitement had happiness. Another one like him, one born from him, would hatch! He wouldn't be alone anymore! The thought had brought him happiness he had never known. Even when the old man had been alive he had never felt like that… and Atemu had given it to him. Atemu had, unwittingly or not, given him that miracle. Atemu had given him Yugi.

When Yugi had hatched, tiny and confused and oh so hungry… everything had changed. Everything shifted. When it had been just the egg, Yami had still been concentrating onto searching food more than to the egg. It had been easy to leave the egg to the sun during day and nestle it beside the fire at night, he hadn't needed to concentrate onto the egg all the time. But when the egg had broken and hungry, frail, helpless child had awakened, Yami had been forced to change. Yugi had demanded all his attention - he hadn't even dared to leave the child's side, he had been so frail that anything could've harmed him…

At first he had carried Yugi in sling when going out to search food. But as Yugi had grown he had gotten more energized. When he had learned to slither, the boy had seemed to never stop. He was always going somewhere and it had been all Yami could do just to keep up with him. It had been nerve wrecking, especially when Yugi had started to look at it as a game. The boy had slithered closer and closer to the ravine, to danger of falling… until Yami had been forced to snatch him away. And when he had tried to cold the boy, Yugi had just giggled at him and kissed his cheek and he always had forgotten why he had been so angry.

The old man had spoken of love to him. Parent's love for a child, child's love for a parent, woman's love for a man and man's love for a woman… Yami had never known love before Yugi had begun to smile at him. Yugi, his miracle, his light, his little one… his gift from Atemu.

What would Yugi say to him if years later he would explain this all to him? About Atemu and his need for them? What if by that time Atemu and his entire kingdom were already dead by that time?

Yami closed his eyes and snuggled closer to the child. Yugi was kind and gentle. He loved everything that lived, even the vultures that circled around the ravine occasionally, even the jackals that ruined the vegetable patch, even the worms that ate away their vegetables, even the weeds that tried to steal the water from the vegetables. Ever since he had been old enough to speak, he had been somehow finding the strangest things out from the desert, bringing them to him with always the same plead. "Can we keep it?" jackal puppies, small lizards, snakes… even scorpions.

If Yugi would find out and understand… he would look at Yami the same way when he had tried to explain the boy that scorpions were too dangerous to be kept. That teary "why?" and the confused eyes… Yami wasn't sure if he would be able to handle it. If he would drive Atemu away now and Yugi would find out about it… his little one wouldn't understand. And if he would, would he think that he had made the right decision? Two lives - even if they were their lives - against the countless lives of Atemu's people… Yugi wouldn't choose the two of them. Heck even Yami knew that it wasn't the right choice.

But he was so afraid. He still had the scars as sign of how kind humans could truly be. He had just a child back then, only been looking for comfort and company, he had been so lonely… and they had drawn their swords the moment he had seen them. And when he had tried to explain, they had yelled at him, called him demon, attacked him… it was only thanks to the fact that he was very fast at slithering that he was even alive.

To put Yugi through that? Yugi who was still so innocent, who was so freely happy, who… loved so openly?

"Yami…" the boy in his hold moaned, opening his eyes. Small hand rouse to rub the sleep from the child's see before Yugi took him in. "Why are you shaking Yami?"

The elder snake tried to smile, but found that he couldn't. Instead he hid his lips against his arm. "I need to make a decision, Yugi. I need to choose between two bad decisions and I don't know what to choose."

The child looked at him confusedly before yawning with a stretch. Then the boy curled against his side, the amethyst shaded dark tail wrapping over his own. "Choose the less bad one," the boy said simply, snuggling against his chest.

"But I don't know which one is the less bad one," Yami whispered, moving a bit to rest his cheek against the boy's hair. Which was worse, risk of Yugi's death or his hate? If he chose not to go with Atemu, then at least he could be sure that Yugi would be safe, but… Yugi would never forgive him. Wrapping his arm around the boy's shoulders, Yami sighed. "Yugi. Would you like to meet a human?"

"Human?" the child looked up with confusion. "Aren't humans scary?"

"There is one human I know who isn't scary at all," Yami forced a smile, stroking his finger through Yugi's spiky hair. "He's understanding and kind and… he wants to meet you."

Yugi considered it for a moment, looking adorably thoughtful before looking up. "Will he hurt me?" the boy looked so innocent when he said it, so unknowing. He had heard of humans from Yami, knew that they were dangerous creatures… but unlike Yami he didn't have personal experience of them. And even though he wished to keep things that way, Yugi too would need to experience things for himself.

"No, no he won't. I won't ever allow anything to hurt you, my little light," Yami assured in whisper. Yugi was too young for this kind of decision, entirely too young. Yami had been already thirteen, but he had been too young too. But… no one said that life worked the way you wanted to. The old man had taught him how unfair life could be, so Yami stopped expecting fairness. All one could decide really was what one did. Everything else was left to chance.

The boy smiled. "I'd like to meet a human," he then said. "I want to see how they move around if they don't have a tail."

Yami chuckled, but it came out half choked thank to the lump in his throat. "They walk. They have feet where we have tail," he said softly, running his fingers through Yugi's hair again. "Kind of like jackals, but they only do it with two legs instead of four."

"Do they have furry tails like jackals?" Yugi asked excitedly.

The elder snake's chuckle was easier this time. "Why don't we go and see?"

-

Atemu had been giving the horses some water when he heard sand rasping at the direction of the ravine. For a moment he froze, not sure what to do, before he carefully looked over his shoulder. It was Yami, who was slithering out with something hanging around his neck. It took moment for Atemu to realise that they were arms - and that there were curious though slightly frightened amethyst eyes peering at him over Yami's shoulder.

The elder Naga gave him a warning look before looking at the now awakened little one over his shoulder. "Yugi, this is Atemu," Yami said to the boy who was clinging to him. Yugi's amethyst tinted tail was resting over Yami's darker, thicker one in loose coils and for a moment Atemu was sharply reminded of his easy it was to stand on that spot in Yami's back.

"Wh-what are those big things?" the child whispered loudly to the elder snake-creature. He wasn't looking at Atemu but at the dray - at the horses.

Yami smiled slightly at the frightened question. "They're horses," he explained. "Humans use them to get around - they ride them and have them pulling drays and carriages… humans aren't very fast at their feet, you know." After moment of hesitation, the elder Naga reached back and urged Yugi down from there. "Come on now, there's no need to be scared."

The boy slid down slowly, but stayed pressed at the other Naga's side, his tail still curled over the elder one's. "Yami, why doesn't he fall down?" Yugi asked confusedly, staring down to Atemu's feet. "He should fall down. I would fall down if I wouldn't have a tail. Why doesn't he?" Atemu couldn't help but smile a little at the words. It was obvious that the child had never seen human before.

"I guess he has good balance," Yami was smiling a little bit wider now. Apparently the boy's questions were easing the man's suspicion and hostility somewhat. "Remember the old man I told you about? He could stand even on one leg. He was good at it too."

"Really?" Yugi asked amazedly, before looking at Atemu again. He smiled a little. "He doesn't have jackal tail. I think he would look funny if he had." Yami laughed a little at that while Atemu blinked with confusion. Yugi giggled as well, still pressed at Yami's side. The boy seemed shy rather than fearful now. "Can he speak?" the boy asked.

"Yes I can," Atemu answered while still wondering about the jackal tail remark. Just what was Yami teaching to Yugi about humans?

The little Naga giggled at his words, pressing his face against Yami's side. "Yami, the human spoke to me," he spoke with muffled voice, before peaking at Atemu again. "Hi. I'm Yugi," the boy named himself shyly.

Trying not to smile too widely at the child's antics, the human nodded. "Hello Yugi. My name is Atemu," the pharaoh introduced himself. "It's nice to meet you." 'My son…' he added sadly in his head.

While Yami was hiding his smile behind his hand, Yugi pressed his face against the elder Naga's side. "The human spoke to me again," the boy giggled, before looking up to Yami. "He's nice," the boy stated.

"Yeah. I guess he is," Yami turned to look at Atemu, looking thoughtful for a while. Then he looked down to the boy again. "What do you think, would he like to join us for something to eat?" the elder Naga asked. Atemu blinked with surprise. Yami didn't even look at him, keeping his eyes on the boy. "Would you like to ask him?"

Yugi's eyes were wide when he glanced at Atemu again. After long moment of hesitation, the boy spoke shyly. "Do you eat?"

"Yes, I do eat," Atemu chuckled. For a demon child, Yugi was certainly adorable. If he didn't have tail where legs should've been, he would've been no different from human child.

While Yugi giggled again, Yami shook his head with amusement and motioned Atemu to come closer. "Come on. You're probably hungry."

Atemu nodded. After giving the horses a glance, he followed the two Naga towards the ravine. A shiver ran over his spine as he thought how strange family he had - if it even could be called that - but it didn't matter. Yugi was shyly smiling at him. Yami wasn't so hostile anymore. There was still a chance. If he could not save his kingdom then at least he could get to know his son.

"Is that hard?" Yugi asked shyly, pointing at his legs as he followed beside the two Naga towards the ravine. "That thing you do wit your legs. It looks hard."

"When you've been doing it as long as I have, you get used to it," Atemu smiled slightly. "To me walking seems easier than the slithering you do."

"But slithering is easy!" Yugi looked shocked. "You just go like this," he made a strange slithering motion with his hand. "I've always know how to slither! It's the easiest thing in the world."

"No it took you almost half a year to learn," Yami corrected with a knowing smile. "You kept stumbling for a long while too. Fell flat to your face at times."

"Mean Yami," Yugi pouted. "I don't fall anymore though. I can slither for hours and never fall down," he then said with little bit of pride, before turning sullen. "I'm not as fast as Yami is, though. He's really fast. But one day I'll be just as fast - no, I'll be faster."

Atemu chuckled. "I'm sure you will," he said. 'Such a sweet child,' he mused silently. 'Not all that different from the other children I've met. Even if he grew up in a cave, even if he isn't a human… he isn't that different after all.' He glanced at the elder Naga just as they entered the ravine. 'Yami has raised him well so far. I shouldn't be surprised. Yami isn't a brute or a monster either…'

At the cave Yugi hid himself in the blankets while Yami took a pot, hooked it over the fire, and begun preparing some stew. Atemu noticed that he only added vegetables to the stew. "I haven't found all that much meat lately," Yami explained quietly. "We've been eating vegetables for two months now."

'Vegetables are better than nothing but… Yami and Yugi aren't exactly humans,' Atemu worried. 'They are half snakes and snakes eat meat…' he glanced towards the mouth of the cave. "I have some meat at the dray," he said carefully. "There's enough to share."

Yami looked like he was about to argue when Yugi's head peaked out from amidst the blankets. "Meat?" the boy asked hopefully. The elder Naga sighed ad glanced Atemu almost embarrassedly. With a smile Atemu stood up. Yami was probably too proud to ask but with Yugi there he wouldn't refuse either.

Quickly Atemu fetched the one of the food containers the servants had readied for his trip. He still needed to, for better or worse, survive another ten days through the desert when he returned home, so he didn't take all of it. Just the amount he could spare. Hopefully it would be enough.

"I appreciate this," Yami murmured to him when accepting the small amount of dried meat. "Yugi's a growing boy, he eats often… and he really likes meat." Swiftly the elder Naga cut the meat into slices and added it into the vegetable soup.

"It's nothing," Atemu smiled slightly. "You fed me last time so I guess it's only fitting."

"Last time?" Yugi, who had moved to Yami's side, asked curiously.

"The last time I was here," Atemu smiled a little, before stopping. He glanced at Yami carefully, not sure if he had been allowed to say that. Yami might want to keep Yugi's true origin a secret from the boy, so…

"You've been here before?" Yugi asked confusedly. "I don't remember."

"It was before you hatched, little one," Yami answered, wrapping his muscular arm around the boy casually. Such displays of affection were apparently normal between them. "I met Atemu when he was somewhat younger than he is now. I found him from the desert and helped him."

"Was he in trouble?" Yugi asked before looking at Atemu shyly. "Were you in trouble?"

"I was. Yami saved me," Atemu smiled slightly. When Yami said nothing, Atemu begun to tell the boy what happened. How he was taken from his home by bad men who wanted to hurt him. How the sandstorm buried the bad men and how Yami found him after wards. How Yami took in and helped him and then pointed him towards human civilisation.

"Wow… Yami never told me," the boy looked at the elder Naga accusingly. "You were holding a story from me! Mean Yami."

The elder snake-creature chuckled, leaning closer to the boy and pressing a fond kiss to Yugi's temple. "Some stories need to be told at right time and sometimes… by right people," he said, before turning to tend to the food again. "Maybe Atemu knows more stories. You should ask him."

Yugi looked at Yami with surprise before turning now excited eyes to Atemu. "Do you know more stories?"

Atemu smiled, nodded, and started telling one of the many children's stories he had heard as a child. He told the tale of the Turquoise Amulet, which had been one of his favourites when he had been a child - a story of disheartened pharaoh Snefru who couldn't find delight in anything. In the story Snefru sought advice from his chief magician, Zazamankh who advised him to take a trip down the Nile. Zazamankh arranged it so that it was a lovely trip with beautiful maidens rowing the boat one of the singing a beautiful song to guide the rowing… until the singer dropped her turquoise amulet to the waters. Without her singing the rowers did not row and the journey halted. The pharaoh then called Zazamankh to retrieve the pendant, which the magician did. Then the voyage could continue.

Of course, Yugi, after growing far away from such things, didn't know what a pharaoh or a magician was. He didn't even understand what a maiden was and Atemu had to spend almost half an hour explaining what Nile was like. Yami seemed most amused by the whole thing as he watched how Atemu struggled to explain these so normal and commonplace things to overly curious and thoroughly confused Yugi. By the time Yugi didn't have any more questions, they had already finished the dinner and Yami had even washed their bowls.

With everything explained, Yugi asked him to tell the story again, saying that he would understand it better now. Atemu wasn't even midway the story when the boy started to droop. Soon after he fell asleep, contently curled upon the blankets. "Full stomach makes him always sleepy," Yami mused fondly while spreading a blanket over the boy's human-like upper body.

"He's a lovely child," Atemu whispered with a smile. "No different from any human child I've met. Perhaps a bit more innocent than even humans are at that age."

"Well, he grew up in a cave," Yami muttered with a frown. "So did I."

"Nothing wrong with that," the pharaoh mused, glancing around. Yami lived such a humble life and didn't even seem to want more. Sure, he knew nothing of the riches among which Atemu had grown, but still. All Yami seemed to care about was survival. For some reason it seemed purer than the reasons for thriving he found in his palace. Here the disputes over temples and such seemed so foolish.

Yami didn't answer for a while, gazing upon snoozing Yugi. "You're the first human Yugi has ever met," the Naga spoke quietly. "And you're kind. The first human I met was the old man, he was kind too… but the second human I met wasn't kind. Tell me. Will the second human Yugi meets try to kill him, like the second human I met tried to kill me?"

Atemu looked at him seriously. "I don't know that. Only the gods know the future," he sighed and leaned back, staring up the cave's roof. "You were the first Naga I've met. Yugi was the second. You're both kind. Will the third Naga I meet be as kind?"

The pharaoh smiled at the look the other gave him. "We don't know," the human shrugged. "Even my priestess who can see the future can't tell for sure. It's not power we mortal creatures have. All power we seem to have is to decide what step we take after the one that has already been taken…"

Yami didn't answer and for a long while they remained in silence. It wasn't awkward silence though. As they listened to Yugi's soft breathing, it seemed always comfortable.

"If I decide to not go with you, if I keep Yugi here," Yami spoke into the silence after long while, startling the pharaoh out of his thoughts. "Yugi will one day ask me why you came and why you left. And when I will tell him what happened, he will hate me, and I can't bear that thought… but he would be save. And alive."

Atemu blinked with surprise as the Naga continued. "If I decide to go with you, I can't know for sure if he's safe. I don't know what will happen," the Naga closed his eyes, hint of deep-rooted pain in his face. "I've met four humans during my life. Two of them were kind and two of them weren't. If that's how the like and dislike divides in humans, I…" the Naga swallowed. "I just want to keep Yugi safe. I want to keep him happy. And I don't know if he will be if we go with you."

Atemu was quiet for a moment before looking at the fire. "I can promise you that I'll do everything I can to keep you both save and happy," the pharaoh spoke. "But that's all I can promise. I can't speak for other humans, their minds and thoughts are their own, I can't command them. As the pharaoh I can punish their actions, but I can't always prevent them."

"It's not an easy choice," Yami murmured.

"No. No it isn't," Atemu sighed, rubbing his hand over his eyes. Then he looked towards Yugi. "I'm glad I came here. I'm glad that I met him. He's a wonderful child. I never imagined…"

Yami smiled a little. "When he hatched, I was very thankful," the Naga said. "He was small and frail and got hurt so easily, but he was one like me and I… I wasn't so alone anymore. He was my miracle. Sometimes I couldn't help but think that you entered my life to give Yugi to me."

"Yami…" Atemu murmured.

"I know you never intended it. I certainly didn't, I didn't even know it was possible," Yami shook his head. "But I don't regret it. I'll never regret it." after moment of silence, the man sighed. "I will ask Yugi. When he wakes up, I'll ask him if he wants to stay here or go with you to meet humans. He will get to decide."

"You're putting lot of pressure on the child by making him choose," Atemu said softly.

"Maybe, but I can't decide," the Naga chuckled almost painfully. "And Yugi has habit of making right decisions," he looked up with a thoughtful look. "It's amazing at times. Once I asked him to decide if we would go right or left when we were searching food. He selected left and we found a flock of large birds… they kept us well fed for some time."

"Might've been lucky coincidence," the pharaoh raised his eyebrows.

"First time maybe. It doesn't explain why he always seems to know which way is the wrong way to go and where we should go. If he points me direction I always find something. Vegetables and herbs usually, but still…" Yami smiled slightly. "My little light has strange power."

Atemu looked at him thoughtfully. "Magic," he then said, making the snake-like man look up. "It runs in my family," the pharaoh explained. "My father passed it onto me and I… passed it onto Yugi. Has he ever… made strange things happen? When I was a child, I used to levitate my favourite toys - make them float mid air," he made a floating motion with his hand. "Has Yugi ever done something like that?

"Nothing like that, but…" Yami frowned. "He's very calming. I can never stay mad at him and… I've never seen an animal hurt him. He can hold a scorpion in his hand and it will never strike him. Same with snakes, even the ones I know to be violent and deadly…" the man smiled a little. "He once made a small colourful bird land on his shoulder and sing for him. I never knew how he did it, he just said that he liked the bird and wanted to take a closer look."

Atemu smiled as well. "Wonderful gift to have, to be able to understand other creatures," he mused. Maybe it wasn't a bad idea to leave the choice to Yugi. There was more to the boy than met the eye. Though Atemu should've known that since the beginning - since the moment Isis saw her vision.

--

Seemed like many were waiting for an update so I struggled to write one. It's short one, but an update is an update. I shall work harder to write more, yush! My apologies for grammar errors, it's getting late and I'm too tired to read through this, so brief spellcheck will have to do


	5. V chapter

**Serpentine Illumination**

**V chapter**

Yami stifled a smile at the sight of Yugi sneakily crawling closer to sleeping Atemu. The boy's entire body was pressed against the ground and for a moment elder one got the most amusing notion that his child was hunting. Leaning back against his coils, the elder snake remained quiet as Yugi carefully reached out his small hand and brushed Atemu's bangs from the man's face.

"He's pretty," Yugi murmured with wonder, tilting his head comically to the side to examine Atemu's face in different perspective. After moment of suffering the difficult angle, Yugi turned to lie on his side beside the human, still looking at the sleeping man's face curiously. "Are all humans this pretty, Yami?" he asked quietly over his shoulder.

"Probably not," Yami answered softly, allowing his own eyes to wander over the human. In comparison to the few humans Yami had met, Atemu was certainly the most attractive one. He had smoother skin than the old man and finer physique than the two men who other humans Yami had met. There also was something regally striking in Atemu's face, something that made the man beautiful. "Atemu is probably unique."

"He's pretty. He's nice too," Yugi said thoughtfully, turning his face back to the sleeping ruler. The boy nodded to himself, leaning his cheek against his arm. "I like him," the boy then decided.

"You like him because he tells you stories," Yami pointed out with amusement.

"Not because of that," Yugi shook his head, glancing at him. "Atemu is nice. Not just to us too," the child turned to look at the sleeping man again. "He's nice to others too."

Yami was quiet for a moment, contemplating on the simple statement. Nice to others? Yeah, he couldn't imagine Atemu being any more cruel to humans than he was to them. The fact that the man was so understanding about them was testament of his kindness. But… coming from Yugi's mouth, that statement had deeper meaning than that. It was like Yugi knew it for a fact rather than guessing it.

"How do you know? That he's nice to others too?" Yami asked with slight tilt of his head as he looked over his child thoughtfully. Was this part of the magic Atemu had passed onto Yugi? "Maybe he's only kind to us. He could be a merciless tease to others for all we know."

Yugi giggled a bit. "He isn't," he shook his head, raising his small hand and running his fingers over Atemu's tanned face. "Atemu cares for people. He's nice to them… looks after them," he looked at the elder snake over his shoulder. "Like Yami looks after me."

Yami smiled at the words. "Yeah, probably," he nodded thoughtfully. There was a moment of silence as Yugi concentrated onto studying Atemu's features. After long while of hesitating, Yami spoke up again. "Atemu needs to leave, little one," he said. "He can't stay here forever."

The boy didn't answer, merely shifted a bit closer to the human. "Yeah. Atemu's people need him," the boy then said, relaxing against the sleeping human. He was quiet for so long that Yami thought he wasn't going to say anything else. But when Yami opened his mouth to speak, to ask the question he didn't want to ask, the boy continued. "We will go with Atemu," Yugi said calmly.

"We will?" Yami raised his eyebrows with surprise and slight fear. He hadn't even asked the boy and Yugi had already decided? Could Yugi read his mind? Or was this something else? His eyes narrowing, the elder snake shifted uncomfortably. "Why we will go with him?

"Because they need me," Yugi shrugged, now resting his cheek against Atemu's chest. The boy giggled quietly. "I can hear his heartbeats. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump…" the boy hummed contently. "Atemu has nice heartbeat. Calmer than Yami has. Yami has loud heart."

After moment of silence, the elder Naga sighed. He ran his hand over his eyes, trying to stop them from stinging. Then he chuckled, trying to clear away the blockage that had suddenly appeared in middle of how throat. "I have a loud heart?" he asked with a slightly choked voice. Yugi had decided for their fates -- and despite of how flimsy that decision seemed, Yami would go along with it. He had already decided he would. It didn't mean that he liked it, though. "Must be because I have bigger body."

"It'll be alright, Atemu will take care of us," Yugi murmured against Atemu's chest. Then he bursted into movement, jerking away from the human. "He's waking up," the boy giggled, dashing to Yami. The elder snake huffed slightly at the impact as the boy suddenly crashed against his chest. Yugi didn't seem to notice as he curled against Yami's side as if he had always been there. His giggling gave him away, though.

Over the blankets, Atemu turned to his back and yawned, rubbing his eyes. It seemed to take the man a moment to remember where he was as he stared up to the cave's ceiling. Then he glanced around before his eyes settled on still giggling Yugi and slightly amused Yami.

"What is so amusing?" the human asked with slight confusion, making Yugi press his face against Yami's shoulder and giggle even harder.

"Nothing," Yami shook his head and ran his hand over Yugi's hair as he looked the still sleepy human. He couldn't help but rake his eyes over the human's form. Yugi had laid their fates in Atemu's hands. The boy had no second thoughts -- heck Yami wasn't sure if Yugi had given any thought to it at all -- but Yami couldn't be so trustful. Atemu was special, he knew as much, but was he really special enough to protect them? Especially in the cruel world of humans…?

"Are you going to lay there all day?" Yami asked, looking away from the human ruler and down to Yugi. He hated being unsure, but Yugi had decided. And he could not deny Yugi anything that was within his power to grant.

Atemu gave him a slightly flat look before sitting up and stretching. Then he looked at the two others with mildly amused look. "I could say the same to you. From my point of view it looks like you two do nothing but lay around." His eyes skipped down to lazily coiled folds of Yami's snakelike lower body and the way Yugi's thinner yet brighter shaded snake-tail curled over Yami's.

Yami raised a single eyebrow at the words. "I'd say the two of us have certain field advantage in that area -- at least we can still be active and useful whilst laying around."

"You don't seem to be too active or useful right now," Atemu snorted amusedly and Yugi giggled softly. The human's eyes skipped down to the child and the look about his face changed slightly. Yami blinked at the reaction but Atemu turned his eyes away before Yami could assess it completely. It wasn't first time Atemu had… softened when he looked at Yugi. It wasn't all that different from the way Yami knew he reacted to Yugi, but… he had known Yugi longer, there were deeper reasons for his reaction. Why would Atemu…

The human coughed and sat up before walking to the corner of the cave where the stream was to wash his face. "I need to take some water for the horses," he said while kneeling down beside the stream. "If that's alright."

"It's fine. All the pails are outside though," Yami frowned. He had left them there yesterday in his hurry to hide from Atemu. With a shake of his head he nudged Yugi's side to make the boy release him. "How about we get the pails for Atemu?" he asked from the child who grinned and nodded.

While fetching the buckets, Yami looked over the vegetable ground. If they would leave, the vegetables would be left unattended and in the mercy of the various beasts that had been haunting them ever since he had painstakingly planted them. 'Though harvesting what I can and taking it with us isn't a bad idea. I doubt that Atemu prepared enough food for us as well… especially not for Yugi. He eats more often than I need to.'

He glanced at the child who had fetched his small pail from amongst the plants and smiled. Hoisting the empty buckets up, Yami motioned Yugi to follow him as they headed back to the ravine. Inside the cave Atemu had finished cleaning up -- had even washed his hair. "How much water do your horses need?" Yami asked, trying to ignore the water glistening on Atemu's neck.

"Two buckets should do it," Atemu answered. He took one pail while Yami took another -- and of course Yugi, who was eager to be helpful, filled his little bucket even though it was probably useless. Not that Yami was going to ever say that aloud.

Outside it was a totally different thing though. Yugi, having never seen horses, didn't dare to go closer to them. He was very curious about them though, looking at them with wide eyes even whilst hiding behind Yami.

"They're not dangerous, Yugi," Atemu said amusedly while holding a buckets up for one of the horses to drink from. "I know they're big but they're quite docile and friendly. I promise they're not going to hurt you."

Yugi looked torn between curiosity and fear until Yami nudged his side gently. "Come on," he urged and slithered a bit closer. He wasn't sure if it was the curiosity or need to hide behind something, but Yugi quickly followed, sticking to his side tightly. It was rather amusing and in a way strange sight for Yami. He had never seen Yugi being afraid of an animal. Normally he was as un-afraid of them as one could get.

Once they were as close as Yugi wanted to get, Yami looked down to the boy again. There was strange mixture of a frown and pout in the boy's face. "My little light?" Yami asked. "Is something wrong?"

Yugi's frown deepened before he shook his head. "No, I guess not," he murmured and pressed his face against Yami's side. Then the boy jerked away and quickly slithered away, soon vanishing to the ravine. Confused, Yami glanced at Atemu who seemed even more puzzled.

"What was that about?" Atemu asked, lowering the almost empty bucket now that the horse was done drinking and holding the other bucket for the other horse.

"I don't know. Some times I can't understand him at all," Yami sighed. "Whatever bothers him… he'll come around in half an hour or so. He usually does."  
"I see," the human said, turning his attention to the horses again.

For a while Yami just watched him. He had always the though, that pharaohs were some how beyond physical tasks such as these -- didn't they have servants and such taking care of their animals? That was the impression he had gotten from the old man's stories. Atemu, however, seemed fairly content with the lowly task as if there was nothing wrong with him doing it. And maybe there wasn't. It wasn't like Yami knew Atemu all that well.

"Before you woke up, Yugi decided what we're going to do," the snake spoke carefully, turning his eyes quickly away as Atemu's attention snapped to him. "I didn't even need to ask. We'll come with you."

He heard Atemu's inhale of surprise and relief before the man spoke. "Are you sure?"

"No. But Yugi is and I trust him," Yami shook his head, and looked at the human. "I need to harvest some of the vegetables to serve as food supply and then I need to pack… Could you look after Yugi while I do?" Not that Yugi needed looking after but Yami needed a moment alone to think.

"Yes, of course," Atemu nodded and then watched as Yami slithered away and to the vegetable ground.

-

'Really… that's it?' Atemu thought after feeding the horses some of the hay he had brought with him. He had slight frown marring his brow as he made his way back to the ravine. 'I would've thought it would take a little more than that, but I suppose Yami was really speaking the truth when he said he'd trust Yugi's judgement.'

He couldn't deny that it unnerved him a little, though. You didn't put such important decisions on the shoulders of children, not in the human societies anyway. Children were ignorant and foolish most of the time, certainly not responsible enough to decide something this big… and it was big. Bigger than Yami's worry over Yugi's safety.

'Well at least he chose the right thing from my perspective. I wonder why though,' the pharaoh mused and shrugged while making his way to the dark cave where the two Naga lived. It took him a moment or two to adjust his eyes to the darkness of the cave -- as it was only lit by the fire lingering in the bit -- and once he did he saw that Yugi was stretched around the fire pit, laying lazily on top of the blankets. The boy was fiddling with something colourful, the tip of his tail jerking a little in rhythm of some tune that Atemu couldn't hear.

"Did the horses frighten you?" Atemu asked, not sure what else to say. This was his first time alone with the Naga boy -- his own inhuman son -- and unlike he had thought, it was… difficult. He still wasn't quite adjusted to the idea of having a son at all. The fact that Yugi knew nothing about him didn't help.

"It's not… that they were scary," the boy answered, glancing over his shoulder. "It's that they weren't natural."

"Natural? I assure you, those are real horses," Atemu assured, sitting awkwardly beside Yugi's humanlike upper body and looking at what the boy was playing with. It looked like shells of some kind. Egg shells? "They wouldn't have been able to bring me all the way here from where I lived if they were mere illusions."

"No, no. I know they're real, but they aren't natural," Yugi said again, burying his face against the blankets while fitting two pieces of the colourful shells together with surprising accuracy and making Atemu realise that he was putting the shells together like some sort of puzzle. "They're not like… like animals should be. They're different. Changed… their nature is weird. They're not wild."

Atemu blinked confusedly. "You mean… they aren't natural because they're tame?" he asked slowly.

"Yeah, that's it," Yugi nodded, glancing up and shrugging his shoulders. "Tame. I don't like that. Animals shouldn't be tame. It's not right."

The pharaoh didn't quite know what to say to that. He smiled sadly instead and reached for a piece of a shell. It was surprisingly hard, almost feeling like metal in his fingers. "We humans aren't as fast as you snakes," he then said, gently fitting the piece into the others. "We need animals like horses to work as our feet when we need to get somewhere fast. And when they work as our feet, we take care of them in return. Offer them place to live in, food to eat, water to drink…"

The boy was quiet for a while. "I suppose that's good then," he then murmured, folding one arm under his cheek and peering up to Atemu. "They're my egg shells," he then said, pointing at the pieces. "I was in them when I was born. I was really little back then, so I fit inside."

"Did Yami tell you that?" Atemu asked having suspected it already. There wasn't much of the shell puzzle put together yet, but he could tell that it was bigger than any egg he had ever seen. 'I wonder how big it is…'

"Yeah. And I remember when I was inside it. Kind of," the boy said and smiled. "It was warm. Yami kept me warm all the time. It was pretty nice, but I was happy once I got out. I like it better outside."

'That… should be impossible, but I suppose Naga grow differently than humans. Who knows, maybe they have understanding and coherency right from birth, even if not maturity,' the pharaoh mused, figuring that it was best to accept and just get used to it. Yugi and Yami were different from anyone he knew. It was better not to try to judge them by human standards. "Yugi, you… you decided to come with me. Why?" he then asked.

The little Naga eyed him for a moment before smiling. "Because I want to," he said, shrugging his little shoulders carelessly, for all appearances completely unaware of the weight on them. Then the boy frowned a little. "Yami doesn't like it much, though. He worries a lot. But I still want to go. I need to go."

"Do you… know what will happen?" the pharaoh asked slowly. It certainly sounded like Yugi knew more than one would expect of him. Considering what Yami had told him the previous night… and the fact that the boy had agreed to go, he probably did.

Yugi shook his head, his messy golden bangs swinging about his face as he did. "It's not that I know what _will happen_, but sometimes I know what's _happening_," he answered, folding his hands and resting his chin on top of them while eying the egg shells. "I can see things that happen far away. I can see them sometimes, too. The others. Others like me and Yami."

Atemu froze, his eyes widening as he stared at the boy. 'He's clairvoyant?' he thought with shock. 'And can see the other Naga? Does Yami know he has this talent?' he thought back to the tale of the boy's abilities and frowned. Yami knew some, but… hadn't the elder Naga said that Yugi hadn't told him straight way that he had powers like these? Why was the boy telling him now, if he didn't tell Yami?

"Ah… what are they doing? The others like you?" the pharaoh asked after a moment of strained silence on his part.

Yugi didn't answer in a while before shrugging his shoulders and burying his face into his arms. "Hurting," he answered sadly. "They're hurting. A lot."

Not knowing what to say to that, Atemu coughed softly and remained quiet for a while. He wanted to ask, to know everything Yugi saw, to get some information about the mysterious enemy on the verge of destroying his kingdom… but something held him back. Something about Yugi and the knowledge that Yami, still suspicious and no doubt angry, was near by.

'It won't be any use to question him here and make him distressed,' he thought resolutely. "I would only make Yami angrier with me. And here Yugi's words can't be recorded or studied properly. No. I will question him about his ability to see once we get to capital. Isis will probably be more useful in understanding and deciphering Yugi's abilities, being seer herself…'

The silence stretched and Atemu turned to the eggshells again, to continue to put the strange puzzle together. The two of them were silent for a while, he compiling the shell pieces and Yugi remaining tense and hiding behind his arms. Eventually the boy relaxed when Atemu didn't continue to question him, and finally he looked up again before reaching out to start working too. In silence they fitted the pieces into the puzzle until it started to actually look like an egg.

"It's because of you, you know," the boy then said, making Atemu jerk with surprise and turn to look at him in confusion. "Because I have your blood in me," the boy added without looking up.

"…yes, I suppose that's why you have powers like being able to see far," the pharaoh agreed, shivering at the thought of Yugi knowing his parentage without being told. Or had Yami told? When he looked back to it, he hadn't actually gotten a straight answer to his unspoken questions. "With training I imagine you could possibly come to know even more powers like this -- and control them better…"

Yugi glanced at him and shook his head but said nothing to the words. For a moment Atemu wanted to ask him if he liked to have magic, or if he would've preferred to be without it, but in the end he didn't have the courage of hearing his own son deny his legacy. He was almost relieved when raspy sound of Yami's tail slithering over the ground took the decision away from him.

"Atemu, Yugi," Yami spoke from the cave's mouth, glancing down to the eggshells while carrying armful of vegetables inside. He looked like he wanted to say something to Atemu, before turning to Yugi instead and smiling. "Little light, if you want to take the games with you, you need to pack them. I need to pack our clothes and food, so I'm not doing your packing for you."

"Yes, Yami," the boy said obediently, lifting his upper body from the blankets and starting to quickly gather the eggshells into a wooden container they had apparently been in. Then he rushed toward a corner of the cave where he apparently held his toys.

Leaning his chin to his palm, Atemu watched -- somewhat awkwardly -- how the two Naga packed. Yugi seemed to do it happily but Yami was visibly tense and little snappy, putting things aside with more strength than strictly required. For a moment Atemu wondered if he should offer a helping hand, but decided quickly against it. He would just get into Yami's way and irritate the man further.

'I wonder… the two of them have both lived here ever since their birth -- or their hatching anyway,' the pharaoh thought, looking around the cave. It was so simple in comparison to the places he had lived but in the same time it was probably everything the two snakes needed. Safe, warm, hidden, comfortable enough for the two of them. Simplistic, yes, crude, even more so, but neither of the two seemed to care about such things.

'But then again they don't know better, do they? They don't know how life can be, when you live grandly, comfortably, within society that accepts you, within favourable company… they only know simple life and loneliness… But that only makes Yami's possessive protection of Yugi natural, I suppose.'

He didn't know if he could live like the two did. Though he liked solitude occasionally, he enjoyed company of his priests and advisors, sometimes he even enjoyed the discussion with the nobles and landlords and merchants. And he most definitely enjoyed his wanderings in the slums where he could see the rougher side of his people's lives. He liked talking with peasants when they didn't really know whom they were talking to, when they were relaxed and shared their experiences and problems with him like he was another one sharing them.

'If I knew none of that, I still don't think I'd be comfortable in complete solitude. I… wouldn't make a good hermit,' the pharaoh thought with mild amusement. 'I imagine I would get bored very quickly if not nothing else.'

He sat there a while, watching the two in thought before realising that he should probably do some work too. If nothing else, he needed to fill the water casks. It was long journey, and the horses would need some water along the way.

Once Yami had packed two crude bags full of clothes and food -- and after asking Atemu if he had a kettle with him, he had also packed that also -- and Yugi has gathered some of his toys into a smaller bag, they left the cave. Atemu didn't know what he was expecting, but the two Naga slithered out of the cave without any sentiments or good byes or even a backwards glance.

Considering that it was the only home the two had ever known, Atemu would've thought that there was at least some bit of sadness… but there wasn't. Yami was stoic and Yugi was humming now happily as if they were only going out for a walk. Or a slither.

Pushing the lack of sentiments away, Atemu lead Yami and Yugi to the dray. "You can put your things to the back," he said, motioning the back which held the water casks and the wads of hay for the horses.

Yami nodded without a word and placed his bags down before taking Yugi's bag and placing it to the back o the dray as well. "How fast is this?" he then asked, rapping the dray with his knuckles.

"Not as fast as you, as I probably shouldn't push the horses too much, but it can go faster than camels," Atemu answered and smiled thinly. "I figured Yugi might want to ride on it. I don't think the horses would manage to pull your weight, though, Yami. Not far anyway," he added, casting a look at Yami's long, thick snake-like body. Yami probably weighed more than four or even five men put together, more than the horses could handle on a long run anyway.

"That's fine, I'm not getting on that contraption if I can avoid it anyway," the elder Naga murmured while looking down to their son. "Do you want to try, little one?"

"Um… maybe later," the boy said, looking up with brilliant eyes that seemed even more like jewels now that they were outside. "I want to slither first."

"Hm… yeah. It's been a while," Yami agreed and looked at Atemu. When he didn't say anything the pharaoh coughed awkwardly and freed the dray's reign's from the rocks he had tied it to. Then he took a seat at the dray, feeling somewhat awkward since Yami and Yugi remained on the ground.

Pushing the awkwardness aside, Atemu checked the position of the sun and spent a moment to try and reach for the temples of his capital city with his senses -- which was possibly the easiest way for a magician to navigate. Finding the right direction, he turned the dray around to the right direction while the horses eagerly pulled at their harnesses, anxious to get going. And then, with the two Naga slithering at the dray's side, the Pharaoh of Khemet stared his journey back home.

--

Hiya. Long time no write to this thing, huh? Short chapter again, but I'm not giving up. I like this story too much to ever give up on it. They should finally get back to the capital in the next chapter, and thinks shoud start moving along from there, at last. My apologies for possible grammar errors.


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